Beautiful Secret
by PixieGirl13
Summary: Its Percy's 3rd year at Camp Half blood. Everything is fine till a sphinx shows up at the border and demands for what was stolen from her to be returned and will eat anyone who comes in her way. Now Percy is in search for the thief. Better sum in my bio.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This fic is still in Percy's POV, but I just want to tell you readers that the style is not going to be like Rick's. I've got my own style and will use it. Also, there are some spoilers for the second book, so please don't read this if you don't want to know the ending to it. With that said, the way I portray Thalia's personality in this fic is just my own thoughts. I don't know her personality, so I just had to make one up. But its always fun starting a new fan fic! This is my first time writing a Percy Jackson fan fic, and I hope it turns out as well as I plan it to. Please give a review! Thanks!

**Beautiful Secret**

By: Pixiegirl13

Chapter 1: Lava Run

My lungs felt like withering balloons, and my arms and legs were ready to fall off my body. Smoke from the nearby lava pit slowly rising below me billowed up into my face with each passing breeze, making me want to cough out my lungs. Every rock I used to pull myself up higher with threatened to burn my skin off. Heat overwhelmed my body, making fat sweat drops on my forehead and smothering the rest of me in the bad odious liquid. I desperately wanted to stop, but the lava was just too close and I needed to reach the top before the earthquakes began.

I had volunteered to try out the new rock wall because…?

Well, it seemed like fun yesterday from a distance. There was nothing else to do at camp that week, so I signed up to be one of the first ones to try it out. Now I was running my lungs out so I wouldn't drown, or in this case disintegrate, in a lake of lava! Big mistake on my part. Too bad the kid from Poseidon couldn't come with brains.

I was pretty close to the top, only a few large rocks to go, when I heard a scream from close below. Before I could let my mind protest, I jumped down a few rocks to help whoever was in need. Sure enough, I saw two hands hanging onto the side of a rock. The person was ready to slip and fall into lava! Deaths happened at camp Half-Blood, but I didn't exactly realize one could happen a year I was there.

Quickly, I launched myself forward and grabbed the person's wrists before they slipped off the edge of the boulder. With a grunt, I managed to pull the person up till she was standing next to me. We both put our hands on our knees and panted from the physical activity and the scare.

I waited for the thank you, and when it didn't come, I said boldly, "You're welcome."

"I wasn't in need of help, Percy," she snapped back.

We both looked at each other with glares, and mine sharpened when I saw who she was. It was Emerald Runner from Aphrodite cabin. Goody.

"Why are _you_ here?" I asked her with little politeness in my voice. I was grouchy from being stupid and taking up the challenge of climbing a mountain side with raising lava pit trying to fry me, and the fact that I had just saved one of the most annoying girls at camp Half-Blood.

Last year I'm ashamed to say I had one of the biggest crushes on this girl. She had wavy long dark brown hair that was always perfect in whatever style she put it in everyday. She was tall, thin, and had some of the best curves. I'd never seen a girl so breathtaking. But it were her piercing emerald green eyes that could make any man fall over dead from a heart attack no matter what age they were. They held all the power.

You're probably wondering why I was acting like such a jerk to her now. It was the last week of camp last year when she got real mean and fierce, even to her own cabin members. First I was too love struck to notice.

I finally came to my senses when I saw her get into a fight with a cabin member of hers at dinner time. She splashed milk all over one of her sisters then stood back with one of the most impious looks in her eyes. She actually wanted the other girl to fight back! But the girl only broke down in tears and screamed her anger of getting her makeup spoiled at Emerald before running off to the bathroom, like any normal Aphrodite girl or guy would do. Emerald was very much like her mother, but also displayed characteristics that were nothing like her siblings, who were starting to shun her. She had brought it upon herself.

Emerald had her sweat laden long hair in a ponytail that blew gracefully in the wind. Her bright orange camp Half-Blood T-shirt was tied with a rubber band in the back to keep it up to show her slim midriff. She was still extremely hott, but I didn't fall for her like last year. My mind had already summed her personality up and had decided to spit it back out.

The girl looked at me like I was the scum of the earth, like every other Aphrodite kid did most of the time. They didn't care much about anything except for their looks, themselves, and their brothers and sisters. She didn't care that I had just saved her life. That part of her was predictable from any kid Aphrodite had birthed.

"I wanted to try out the mountain," she scoffed back at me before turning sharply with her head held high. I hoped she didn't choke in her pride…oh, wait, I did. She easily pulled herself up to another level of boulders. I didn't know any Aphrodite girl could be that strong. Usually they all sat out for every physical activity.

I followed after her after throwing a glance over my shoulder to see how much the lava had risen. We didn't have much time. Only the bell at the top of the mountain would stop the lava. I kind of wished there was a satyr around. They could go up any of these mountains in the matter of minutes. Sadly, they were not allowed to go try it till the demigods were done. The closest people to that bell were Emerald and me.

"Where are all the others who signed up for this?" I asked out loud, not really expecting an answer from the girl.

"They quit," she answered in that offensive tone she always had to her voice.

My eyebrows rose in surprise. It wasn't like some of the kids in the camp to give up like that. All demigods, except for ones from Aphrodite cabin, could usually endure. It also shocked me to see that from the group of people, Emerald had been the only one to stick with it. She didn't seem like the type.

"Don't say it, Percy," she growled severely down at me from where she was scaling a vertical cliff face. Somehow she had seen my skepticism and had demanded for it not to be vocalized. I had a hard time obeying her. A sarcastic remark about her and her type was sitting right on the tip of my tongue. I had to set my jaw and force myself to remain quiet.

For a minute or two we scaled the wall with the lava at our heels. I reached the top of the rock face we had been climbing and looked up to see Emerald holding out a hand. Without a word I grabbed it and was once again amazed by her strength as she hoisted me up. We continued the treacherous trek upward in silence for the next five minutes.

We arrived at the top of the mountain with sweat just dripping off our bodies. We were gasping for air and ready to collapse. A coma seemed nice at this moment. We had never worked our bodies for that long period of time before.

Emerald went over to the bell and ranged it with somewhat of a satisfied smile creeping to her lips. I was seeing a different side of her. No one would ever picture Aphrodite or one of her kids as being a strong warrior, but when I saw Emerald ring that bell, I saw just that. For once, I saw true beauty in her.

"You can stop drooling now," she grumbled suddenly. I hadn't noticed I had been staring. I would have blushed if my cheeks weren't already flushed from the strenuous hike up the mountain. She leaned over the edge of the mountain for a glance at the lava. She saw it was going down, so she sat on a hot, sun bathed rock and waited for it to fully go down.

I had nothing to do too, so I joined her. We put our feet out over the edge and stared out over the camp. You could see everything from where we were. The archers were expertly firing arrows rapidly at bull's eyes. The strawberry fields were ripe and on the verge of singing along to a tune a satyr was playing on a reed pipe. A volleyball game was being played by some Ares cabin kids. They fiercely whacked the ball back and forth with strong movements. Some kids were just hanging around, waiting for dinner that was soon to come.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Emerald said suddenly. Her tone was different than it was before. Instead of it being all snappy, it was quiet and serene. "Sometimes I only come to camp just to see it," she said with a faint smile. It was the first time I actually saw her express that emotion.

"Yeah," I agreed with a heavy sigh. I was completely worn out but didn't want to show it in front of her. I really needed a shower and hoped my body odor wasn't too strong. I guessed it wasn't because Emerald was talking to me. She didn't have to worry about her smell. All Aphrodite kids came with their own perpetual perfume-like scent. It was guaranteed to last forever.

"My siblings just don't see the radiance in the land sometimes," she said sadly. "They would have never have done what I just did."

I nodded enthusiastically in complete agreement. "I didn't know they could even climb something," I said before the words could register in my head. I winced as she looked over at me with her hard green eyes that seemed to bore right into me. "You guys kind of have a reputation," I said to defend myself.

She sighed in annoyance and turned her eyes back where she had been staring. "I hate stereotypes," she said to me with disgust in her voice. "Its like they put you in this little confiding box. And when you do something outside the box it makes you look bad to everyone. You're lucky, Percy, you don't have a stereotype because you don't have any siblings with you this year. You're just…you."

I looked at her with astonishment on my face. I was out of words. How could anyone think _I_ was lucky? Just two or three years ago I had been thrown into a whirlwind when I found out my dad was Poseidon. I'd been forced to trek to the Underworld to save my butt from Zeus because he claimed I had his precious lightning bolt. To top it off, I had a prophecy saying that I might be the one to bring down the rule of the Olympians. I wouldn't consider myself lucky.

"I believe you're a bit disillusioned about me," I said with a bitter chuckle. "Lucky is definitely not the word to describe me."

She glanced back at me, and a smile washed over her face. Man, it was beautiful! "I was just saying stereotypically you don't have a label right now," she said. "Besides that, you have the crappiest luck."

"Oh, now I'm crappy?" I asked, trying to look serious but blew it with a wry grin.

Before she could say anything, the loud blast of a conch shell pierced the air. I looked up and saw the whole camp come to life. It was dinner time. Every kid was putting down whatever they were doing and rushing off to the large outdoor pavilion sitting on a hill overlooking the sea. A dozen or so picnic tables were placed there, one table for each cabin.

Emerald jumped down to another level of rocks without a word. Our conversation was over. I was almost sad that we couldn't talk more. She was beginning to gain some of my respect. But she didn't want to talk anymore, that was clear, so we both quickly went down the mountain without sharing a single word. It was much easier to get down the mountain than go up it.

I tried connecting one last time with the girl once we stood at the mountain's base. I jumped down to the grassy field next to her and lightly pushed her to the side and shouted, "Beat you there!"

Emerald shot me a look of daggers as she watched me run ahead of her, but she quickly got over herself and started to run after me. I had made a mistake challenging her like this. She was all hard core as she sprinted easily up next to me. Before I knew what she was doing, she shoved me to the side. I tumbled over with a yell of surprise and landed on my butt. I heard her ringing laugh as she left me in her dust.

"Hey!" I yelled angrily at her. I wasn't too happy to get my butt royally kicked by a girl…from the Aphrodite cabin. I would never hear the end of it if I had let her win, so I forced my weakened body up and to sprint after her, which wasn't as easy as it seemed. She had long legs and a big lead. It took all the last of my strength to catch up.

We arrived at the eating pavilion in a tie. By the time we got there, I could tell that she wanted to collapse like myself. I mentally made a note to myself to think before running across a field after spending a half an hour climbing a mountain. We got a few stares from different tables as the kids sitting there noticed us both coming late together. We ignored them as we walked closer as nonchalantly as we most possibly could.

Chiron galloped up and stopped in front of us suddenly. I could see a hint of confusion sweep across his features as he took both of us in. The camp director knew who I liked to hang out with, and Emerald was someone he knew I would avoid contact with. But just as quickly as the unsure expression had come, it was gone again, and he smiled warmly at us.

"How was the new mountain, guys?" the centaur asked. "I heard it was only you two who kept with it."

"It was easy," Emerald said with a casual shrug. I looked over to her with eyebrows raised in surprise. She and I knew that the new rock wall was extremely difficult. I couldn't understand why she was lying. She nudged me with an elbow. I could see a teasing smile come to her bright eyes.

Without knowing exactly what I was doing, I went along with her. I put on a pretend smile and said with a nod, "You should have made it harder, Chiron." Jeez, smiling hurt more than lying. I was definitely worn out.

Emerald stifled a giggle and said, "It was a blast!"

"Yeah, it was epic!" I said enthusiastically. We both tried our best to keep from busting out with laughs when Chiron gave us a deeply perplexed look as he looked back and forth between us. I'd never seen him so messed up before. It was truly hilarious.

"Are…are you guys joking with me?" he asked. Our silent smiles gave it all away. He frowned in annoyance at himself for buying into the joke. "Funny," he said with a sigh. "Go ahead and eat. You both are probably starving by now."

"You have no idea!" I said while running past him.

"Epic?" Emerald asked me with a laugh as we neared the mess hall.

"It sounded better in my head," I answered with a weak smile.

Suddenly the girl stopped and forced me to do like her as she grabbed my arm and pulled me back to her side. I gave a yelp of surprise but quickly steadied myself. A pit formed in my stomach when I saw that she was smirking down at me like she had just done something fabulous at my expense. I wasn't too far off.

"I paid the other campers on the mountain to quit so it would just be me and you on the mountain," she said while flipping her hair back behind her shoulder. "You proved to be a cool person, so I've chosen you out of all the campers to have the privilege to train me in sword fighting. Meet me tomorrow at nine am at the Arena."

This news took me a few long seconds to register. I had been played this whole time! Anger started to rush through my body. My face flushed in my embarrassment of falling for this evil person. _I knew I shouldn't have trusted this girl! She is like every other Aphrodite kid! How could I have been so stupid?_ I thought.

I opened my mouth to protest and shout my disgust, but suddenly I wasn't mad anymore. My gaze was transfixed on her luminous emerald eyes. I tried many times to verbally go against what she was saying I had to do, but every time I tried to gather words I'd lose my passion and go back to feeling nothing. It was like someone had power over a light switch in my head controlling my anger, and they kept flicking it on and off.

"Glad you see it my way, Percy," she finally said. As an afterthought she said with a wicked giggle, "By the way, you smell really bad." She ran off to her table after blowing me a kiss. I watched her go feeling drained of all my energy and frustrated with myself. Why I didn't chew her out for tricking me like that, I'll only know later on. The girls at her table giggled and snickered when Emerald sat down with them and looked my way as she told her treacherous story to them. I guess I was wearing a pretty shocked expression because they were finding me extremely amusing.

I stumbled over to my own table which was completely empty. I always missed Tyson whenever I sat down at my table. All the other cabins had brothers and sisters like themselves. I had no one to talk to when I ate since Tyson was sent to Poseidon's underwater palace to work for him last year.

The feeling that someone important was watching me suddenly came to my acute demigod senses. I glanced up to the Zeus table and saw Thalia sitting alone at the table watching me with her deep blue eyes. The Goth girl gave me a small glare. She had seen me talk to Emerald, who she thoroughly despised, and needed an explanation if she wanted to forgive me.

It took a whole minute for me to figure out what really had happened. My emotions were really jumbled up at this point. I got the sneaky suspicion that Emerald had used some of her demigod power on me. I at last smiled weakly back at Thalia and shook my head in confusion and mouthed the words "I'll tell you later." This seemed to satisfy her, and she indicated it with a nod.

I was relieved when Mr. D finally announced it was dinner time.

A/N: Tell me if you think the chapter was too long. I can always make them shorter. And please review! I'll post the second chapter next week. See you readers then!


	2. Chapter 2 Sphinx Fight

A/N: More from Thalia and Annabeth this chapter. I'm glad you readers are liking the story. Please review! Thanks!

Disclaimer: All characters besides Emerald belong to Rick.

Chapter 2: Sphinx Fight

I woke up that night to a scurrying noise right outside my cabin. I grumbled something incoherently into my pillow before rolling over and out of my bed. I somehow found my way to the door in the darkness of my silent cabin. With me being the only occupant in there, it was very easy to clean up after myself, so I had no need to worry about stumbling into some random object I had forgotten in my sleepy state that I had left there before going to bed.

There are no physical doors to the cabins, just openings to let cool, refreshing air in because the camp doesn't have the worry about any rain. I leaned out the door and looked around. The only light was the faint glow the moon as it shimmered down upon the still land.

"Anybody there?" I whispered. I didn't want to wake the whole camp by yelling at whatever had awakened me from a good sleep. After a few tries to get whoever was walking around in the dead of night to reveal themselves, I gave up and slowly went back to sleep wondering faintly who the person or thing was and cursing it for waking me up so early in the morning.

All breakfast the next day I mulled it over in my head about what to do about Emerald. She certainly went out of her way to get my undivided attention on the rock wall the other day. I was still pretty mad at her for making me look like a fool. I didn't understand why she had acted that way. Did she even realize she had come off to me as mean?

I decided to show up anyway. I figured I could chew her out then forgive her for her harshness. I don't like staying angry at people. It just makes me bitter. So, I pocketed Riptide, told Annabeth and Thalia I'd see them in an hour, then headed down to the Arena.

It was a nice morning, and I would have practiced with swordplay on a day like this one anyway. But the thought didn't make me feel any better. I was going there more on intentions of yelling at Emerald than training her. She said it was a "privilege" to train her! Who did she think she was…Oprah?

No one was at the Arena that morning. It was completely empty, which I didn't mind. If Emerald showed up, I didn't want anybody to see us together and start the wrong rumors. So I just stood there on the side of the dirt circle waiting for the girl to come.

I ran through possible conversations in my head and tried to choose which one would be the most logical. I soon had the whole discussion with Emerald planned out. I knew exactly what I would say when suddenly my plans were destroyed by a loud scream from behind.

The random yell shook me out of my thinking state with a gasp. I spun around while simultaneously pulling out Riptide and uncapping it out of impulse. It was a good thing I acted out of instinct, because if my sword hadn't been at the ready, I would have been sliced in half. Emerald had flung her sword over her head in mid charge and had brought it down just as I had lifted my own sword. There was a loud clash as metal violently collided with metal.

I jumped backwards while easily blocking another one of her wild attacks. My eyes were still wide from the shock of her surprise move. Quickly, though, I realized that the girl wasn't experienced with her sword at all. She flung and stabbed it in odd, cumbersome fashions that were strong but at the same time foolish. The moves made her open to attacks from her opponent.

I could see why she wanted my help with sword fighting. She sucked.

Her biggest mistake was challenging me in a sport that, besides swimming and canoeing, I was best at. Take that and blend it with my frustration towards her, and you get one very short sword fight.

She had only completed about five jabs and swings when I growled in irritation and went at her. She managed to block a swing from me, which I expected because it was only to alarm her. My sword hit hers hard, and I could see her fear as her sword was almost forced right out of her hand by my vigorous blow.

I faked left. She followed with a one hand swing that barely had any force in it. I ducked low from her crazy swing. I heard the air buzz as the slab of bronze cut the air above me. Her sword hit the dirt ground with a lame _thunk_.

The sword was too heavy for her to bring it back up in time. I brought up a leg and kicked Emerald's hand holding the blade. She gave a high pitched scream of surprise and pain as she dropped her weapon. I put my foot back down on the ground and kicked the sword a few yards away from both of us. A look of distaste was planted on my face as I brought the point of Riptide up to Emerald's chest before recapping it and putting the pen in my back pocket.

"What in the gods was that?" I asked her emotionlessly. She was breathing heavily from the physical activity. I hadn't even broken a sweat. She had applied all her energy in every move she used. It was one of the stupidest strategies I'd ever seen, but this was practically her first time fighting, so I let that fact go.

She smiled brightly at me as if I was extolling her for a job well done. "That was my sword fighting!" she said proudly. "I lasted pretty long, didn't I?" I stared at her blankly. Was she serious? She sure did look it.

"You looked like an idiot, if that's what you mean," I answered finally. Her smile dropped, and I spoke up again before I could change my mind. "I'm not even here to train you, Emerald. I'm here to say you're a freak for manipulating me like that yesterday. Go find yourself some other kid to train you because I refuse to do so. And I suggest you do it without influencing them like you did me, because you'll find no friend that way." I then stepped back and waited for a reaction.

Her reaction was not one I expected and definitely one I didn't want. She began to cry. And this wasn't like your little trickle of tears. This was like a freaking water fountain. Tears pored out of her mascara laden eyes as she sat down right there on the dirt floor and put her hands over her face.

As you can tell, I was thrilled. Here I was, wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible to go hang with my friends, but couldn't because I was feeling awfully guilty about making this girl ball her heart out. Maybe I was too harsh. I'd never made someone cry before, maybe a teacher once, but they didn't count. I didn't know what else to do but kneel down close to her and try to look as sorry as possible.

"Um…" I started, and then paused as I desperately searched for the right words. Nothing came, so I decided to go ahead and look like an idiot and wing it. "I…I didn't mean to make you cry." Yeah, that was lame.

Her head snapped up and her glare was venomous through dark makeup soiled eyes. I wanted to run, but only managed a wince. It didn't take a genius to see she was mad and heart broken…because of me. How's that for a guilt trip?

"Of course you didn't want to make me cry!" she spat up at me. I took a careful step back. "And I don't want to be crying like this…but…curse my genes! I hate being an Aphrodite kid!" She wiped her face while calming her sobs. All she did was smear her makeup. She looked at her hands and hissed, "This sucks!"

As she dried her tears, I plopped down next to her with a sigh. Half way through her yelling I realized she hadn't cared what I had said, but the negative ness of it had triggered something in her to cry rather than get mad because Aphrodite kids couldn't handle too much of that emotion. They were programmed to love. I felt sorry for her. While anger was bad in some ways, it was part of life to feel it. The emotion just makes you feel human.

"You okay?" I asked her once I felt she was feeling somewhat better after her rant. Getting it all out always made me feel better. I'm sure she felt the same way even though I was the worst person at comforting. She'd have to find someone else to do that job.

"Yeah," she sighed. She gave a bitter laugh as she said, "I hate it when I cry like a baby."

"Percy!" someone suddenly called from the side of the Arena. I looked up and saw Annabeth there waving dramatically at me to come over to her. I looked back and forth between Emerald and Annabeth till I made up my mind as to who to stay or go with. Annabeth was my best friend, and I would rather hang out with her than spend more time with the weirdness of Emerald. Plus, I noticed Annabeth's dire expression and took it as one of importance.

Pebbles and sand crunched under my sneakers as I stumbled ungracefully to my feet. "See ya," I said to Emerald before running off to where Annabeth was practically jumping up and down with impatience. If I didn't know her better, I would have called her a monkey. That wouldn't have gone over well, so I only resisted the smile as I approached the Athena demigod.

"What's up?" I asked as I stopped next to her. She started to jog away and forced me to follow her. I noticed she was holding her baseball cap she had gotten from her mother to turn her invisible. That only meant something along the lines of a quest was happening or the camp had decided to have a surprise capture the flag tournament. We ran side-by-side up a small hill as she explained.

Her deep gray eyes were wide in wonder as she told me in a surreptitious tone, "There is a sphinx at the camp's borders. She refuses to talk to anyone. Thalia and her crazy self wants to approach it to know what it wants. She also wants you and me to come with her."

"She _is_ crazy," I said with a nervous laugh. Usually my mythology was off or forgotten, but I thought a sphinx was only in Egypt mythology. To avoid looking stupid because of genetic pride, I didn't ask this question and went along for the trip. Apparently, a sphinx belonged to Greek mythology too. I barely remembered that lesson when it was taught.

We reached the top of the hill where a bunch of campers were standing near the magical invisible border. Annabeth and I forced our ways through the throng of kids to where Thalia was explaining to some skeptical campers why she wanted to confront the sphinx.

It was then when I saw it, or more like her. The sphinx was waiting with narrowed hawk eyes at the bottom of the hill. She had the body of a female lioness. Her head was of a hawk. She sported some massive folded wings and a long feline tail that snapped in different directions to show her annoyance with us. Her black feathers on her face and wings looked purple as the sun shown off them. I'd never seen a sphinx before till that point, but I'd have to say she was rather beautiful…in that deadly sort of way.

"I suggest you take Riptide out before we pass through the border, Percy," Thalia said as she placed a hand on my shoulder. I hadn't realized I had been so focused on the sphinx, and so I gave a small jump at the sudden touch. "Calm down," she said with a sigh. "You can be such a scardy-cat, Percy. Now, come on!"

I gulped down the fear rising in my throat and followed after Thalia and Annabeth through the belt of magic protecting the camp. The sphinx focused her harsh gaze upon us as we carefully walked towards her. She didn't move as we neared closer to her at what we felt was a non threatening pace. We didn't want to appear to be the bad guys to the dangerous magical creature, as odd as that sounds.

"What are you three doing?" Chiron's voice exploded from the hill top behind us. He had just been informed that a sphinx was at the borders and we three had gone to go talk to it. Of course he thought it was stupid and brash, so he had rushed out to go stop us. Too bad he was too late and only brought on my mistake as I turned my head slightly to glance at who the speaker was.

As my head was swerving around, the sphinx pounced from her position. I sensed the move rather than saw it. I cursed my stupidity in my head in ancient Greek like most demigods do absentmindedly, and I tried my best to defend myself in time. Riptide was stationed for a frontal attack, but it was no use. She had predicted the move.

The sphinx didn't bother with the blade and only raced past me. The non violent move confused me. It didn't take me long to figure out why she had done that, because soon I was off balance as something jerked my right leg backwards. An alarmed yell escaped me as I fell to my hands and knees in the thick grass.

Fervently, I tried scrambling to my feet before I was sphinx breakfast. I saw the beast spring to my side. Before I could attack, she whipped out her tail and skillfully wrapped it around my hand holding Riptide just like she had done to my leg. The thing was faster than anything I had seen!

"We're not here to hurt you!" I heard Thalia call from a few yards away. I couldn't detect where Annabeth was and guessed she had put her cap on to hide from the sphinx.

The sphinx ignored the demigod and wrestled with me for the control of my sword. Her tail's grip on my wrist was like a serpent trying to squeeze the life out of me. I grunted in anger as I was forced to drop my blade. It would return to my pocket, but my wrist was still ensnared in the tail. A foreboding growl rolled out of her as I stuck my heels into the soft ground and pulled hard to free my wrist.

After a hard tug-a-war, with my arm being the rope, the sphinx got irritated with the stalemate between us. She jumped toward me with a giant paw filled with razor sharp claws. I ducked and avoided the first deadly swing. She yanked her tail toward her, and I was barely able to keep from going down.

It was around that time that I was questioning my intelligence. Why had I volunteered to get mauled by a sphinx? I was beginning to believe every kid born from Poseidon didn't come with some form of common sense. It was that, or it was just me. I couldn't possibly know because so far I was the only demigod from the sea god unless good old dad was hiding something. Tyson was the only Poseidon kid I could think of other than me, but he was a Cyclops.

The sphinx came at me a few more times till I finally got a hold on Riptide. I brought it up to cut off the tail from its grip on my wrist. The sphinx wasn't dense, and just as the blade was going to cut through her, she let me go and let my sword hit only air. But the move cost me more than I knew.

The sphinx let out a piercing screech and swiped one of her massive claws at my hand holding Riptide just as I was bringing it back up. Her claws dug into my hand and ripped through flesh as if it was merely her opening a letter. I let out a yell as my hand exploded in heat and intense pain. I made the mistake of dropping my sword again too.

A tail whipped out and caught hold onto my ankle and yanked it out from under me. I fell to my butt with a wince. I was confused at this point. Usually during a fight my demigod senses came out and I would be able to become something like a supernatural warrior. But at the moment I was getting my butt kicked so badly I didn't even want to think about it.

I looked up from where I was sitting in the grass and into the eyes of the sphinx. Its bright yellow beak snapped in anger as she came in for the kill. My brain racked for a way out. My half blood abilities were shorted out, so I needed to use my head. Strange as it sounds, it worked.

"Wait!" I said to the sphinx while pushing off the back of my feet to gain some extra time, "Give me a riddle! I'll try to answer a riddle!" I was hoping at this point that my mythology was right and that sphinxes liked to give someone a riddle before eating them. It was the only thing I could think of at this point.

She stopped only a few inches away from my face. A sly smile came to her bird features as she pondered the deal. "You want a riddle, boy?" she asked in a surprisingly melodious voice. The language she spoke in was ancient Greek. I was thanking my two camp years of studying it. It would have been bad if I had no clue what she was saying. "Then I'll give you one."

"If I answer it right, you spare me and then tell my friends and me why you are here," I said quickly. "And if I don't answer it correctly, you can eat me…or whatever you sphinx guys do. Deal?"

The sphinx purred in wicked delight. It was odd seeing a bird purr, but I guess it was possible. "It is a deal," she said highly. She sat on her hind quarters and pondered the large dictionary of riddles she had stored in her head before finally saying slowly so I could hear, "What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?"

At first all I could do was wonder why I had asked for a riddle. Didn't I just ponder the thought of having no common sense? I was sure Annabeth had already had it solved before the sphinx had finished it. The girl was just smart that way. After a second or two, the terms all started to say one thing to me. I was the son of the water god. Anything doing with water was like second nature to me. Before ten seconds had passed, I had it figured out.

"A river," I said. A giant grin washed over my face as relief flowed in like a comforting wave.

Something of a frown mixed with respect came to the sphinx's face. "That is correct," she said with a growl of distaste. She let me get to my feet and back away for good measure. Thalia and Annabeth were quickly at my side with worry and concern on their faces.

"I will uphold my promises, but I will warn you now, boy," she said stiffly, "If I find any other camper outside the boarders, I will not hesitate to swallow them whole." How's that for a mental picture?

Her eyes darkened before she said, "I came here today because I'm searching for something that has been stolen from me. Someone in your camp has stolen something of great importance of mine. I will stop at nothing to get it back. Either return it to me, or I will find a way into your boarders and slay the thief! There will be no pity on the monster!"

With that said, she turned around and sprung off the ground. Her black wingspan flared out and caught an air current. She pumped her powerful wings a few times and was soon long gone. A chill spiked up my spine when I thought about what she had said. Someone in the camp was hiding something. I felt it was my duty to find the person or object and return it before anyone got hurt.

The three of us gave each other grim expressions. Thalia apologized for making us go with her through the protective border. Annabeth and I just told her to shut up as we slowly walked back up the hill. Thalia was born a leader and had made a decision like any other person in charge would. The decision was a bad one, but that was where learning from your mistakes came from.

It was getting through Chiron's punishment that would be the hard part. He was yelling furiously at us the whole time we climbed the hill with downcast faces. All we could do was take it with a few winces here and there when he mentioned bathroom and dish duty. The chores were the worst a camper could obtain.

It was Emerald's face that I last remembered that day before going off to heal my hand. Her wide green eyes held a world amount of fear in them as she watched me pass her. Her face was pale as if someone had smeared whiteout all over it, and she was shivering in terror. At first I thought it was just the scare of the sphinx fight. Later I realized it was something much deeper.


	3. Chapter 3 Night Time Rainbow

A/N: Sorry for not updating last weekend. I didn't have enough time to proof read, so I decided to give this to you readers as a Valentine special and then post the next chapter this weekend. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All characters besides Emerald are Rick Riordan's.

Chapter 3: Night Time Rainbow

"Just get me a bucket of water and I'll be fine," I told one of the younger campers who was yelling for a medical kit. She nodded and rushed off to get the bucket. Chiron ushered Thalia, Annabeth, and me onto the big house's wrap-a-round porch. He sat me down on a wooden chair next to a game of checkers that was being played by invisible spirits. After a year or so, seeing crazy things like that was part of everyday life.

"What were you thinking?" Chiron asked us as he turned my wounded hand over to take a look at it. He shook his head when seeing the deep bleeding cuts. I was trying my hardest not to cry from the throbbing pain. Each second was agonizing.

Note to self: don't come near a sphinx EVER again.

"I thought it would be best if we found out why it was there before someone got hurt," Thalia said numbly. She knew it was a pretty lame excuse, but it was the only one she could find in such little time.

"And you two listened to her?" Chiron asked Annabeth and me harshly. "You, Annabeth, of all people should have known it was a rash decision."

Annabeth and I couldn't even muster a sorry as we stared down at our feet as if they were the most interesting things we had seen. Finally the camper came back with the water. I thanked her before submerging my hand into the cool liquid.

Slowly, the cuts began to vanish from my hand as diluted blood swirled in the water. I let out a relieved breath as my powers began to heal my wound. Sometimes it's nice to be Poseidon's kid. My spirits and senses began to rise as the cuts faded away. Anytime I make contact with water I get on a slight high. I pushed the bucket away, knowing the dry feeling I would have if I spent more time with my hand in there before taking it back out.

"What's done is done," I said to Chiron. I avoided his hard gaze as I said quietly, "We should find what was stolen and return it to the sphinx. I believe she is very true to her word. If we don't return it, a kid might end up eaten."

"That sphinx, Percy, is going outside of her jurisdiction," Chiron informed me. "She, like most monsters, has a duty to uphold. She was probably ordered to guard a treasure of some kind and stay there. But if the treasure is stolen, she can not come after the thief. She is breaking the rules, so we do not have to return anything of hers."

"But what if she kills someone?" Annabeth asked. We were all very attached and loyal to the camp along with its campers. We didn't want any of them to get hurt or have fear of returning next year.

"She will not pass through the boarders," Chiron said firmly.

"But…" I spoke up as one final protest.

Chiron clenched his jaw to physically show his displeasure at my objection. Thalia sighed before leaving in her deep frustration. I so wanted to say more but knew it would not change Chiron's mind. Instead, I stood up and walked away with Annabeth at my side. It was all we could do.

At dinner time Mr. D gave a half hearted attempt of sounding caring about us as he told the whole camp not to cross the borders of the camp. The god didn't really mind if one of us got eaten. It would just mean one less camper in his eyes.

When we all had to scrape some of our food off into the fire for the gods, I whispered a prayer to my father. "Please help me find the stolen object…um…dad, 'cause I really need help," I said under my breath. I then dropped a piece of my meat into the fire with a sigh. The bright flames wafted its sweet summer smell toward me before I returned to my seat to eat my dinner.

As kids ate, the whole mess hall was abuzz with talk of the sphinx and my fight with it that morning. At least every eye darted to my table to check me out before returning to whatever it had been looking at before. I ate at my empty table, blocking out the people around me as I wallowed in my thoughts.

My main worry was how I was going to go about finding this stolen object. I couldn't just walk into cabins and rummage through everyone's luggage for something that seemed out of place. I'd get myself beat up or something. The Aphrodite cabin would most likely tear me to shreds.

The thought of them brought my eyes to their table. I scanned the table for Emerald to see if she was okay. She had looked ready to faint this morning when I saw her on the hill. I quickly spotted her and frowned. She was taking the food on her plate and putting it into a backpack she had by her feet. Her table obviously wasn't catching this.

Emerald's eyes suddenly caught a hold on mine and narrowed into dangerous slits. I didn't know how to react. Why on earth would she want to steal food? She had an abundance of it here at the mess hall three times a day. I just didn't understand the girl. Her stare finally made me look away. A fierce power was in those eyes of hers that seemed to be bending me to her very will. It was infuriating on my part.

The scratching and scurrying noise woke me up again that night. I moaned my discomfort into my pillow before once again submitted to my curiousness and got out of bed to investigate it again. This time I scrambled around in the darkness of my cabin till I had grabbed a pair of jeans and my sneakers and put them on. The noise was still progressing when I quickly doubled back to get a flash light. The mystery of what was waking me up at night was going to be solved that soon.

I shoved the end of the flashlight into my back pocket along with Riptide as I snuck out of my cabin and quietly made my way to where I was hearing the sound. I could faintly hear the rhythm of the waves of the ocean behind me. The sound did nothing to calm my beating heart, though. What if it was the sphinx? The thought was making my heart slam against my chest.

My back was tightly pressed against the side of my cabin when I finally pin pointed the location of the scratching. It was coming from some bushes behind my cabin. This was it. I took out my flashlight and said a silent prayer to the gods that only made me feel weaker. Like Thalia said, sometimes I can be such a scardy cat. For all I knew, it could be a stupid squirrel hiding its nuts.

Finally I found some courage and flung myself away from the wall. I pointed my flashlight and turned it on. A stream of bright light blasted from the small device and washed a tall figure in it. I heard the person give a gasp and raise something toward me out of defense. I heard a click of a gun being cocked and took a tentative step backwards.

I squinted to see who the person was in the bright light. I tried not to gasp too loud as I made the figure out to be Emerald Runner. "Emerald?" I asked in surprise.

"Percy!" she hissed while lowering her weapon. "I could have freaking shot you! Don't do that ever again!" There was a pause. I was desperately trying to put together what was going on without having to ask questions. "And turn that thing off! You want to wake the whole dang camp?"

"Oh! Sorry," I said meekly. I fumbled for a second with the flashlight before finally turning it off. Once again the camp was bathed in darkness. The moon made anything white glow in the night, but that was the only light we were able to detect. I could barely see the girl only a yard away from me.

"What are you doing?" I asked her after another pause. "Now that I think about it, what were you doing stealing food at the mess hall? And…and what are you doing with a gun? Those are seriously dangerous! Emerald, you're freaking me out! What is going on with you?"

"Nothing, Percy!" she snapped in a harsh whisper. "Just go back to bed."

"No!" I whispered firmly back.

"Percy, don't do this," she said while advancing toward me. I stood my ground as she grabbed the front of my shirt and shoved me backward. "Go back to sleep!"

"I'm going nowhere till you tell me what is going on," I said. "Can't you trust me? Of all the people in this camp, you know I'm the only one who has been real to you." Another idea came to me, so I quickly added, "If you don't tell me, I'll tell Chiron about you stealing food…and that you paid campers to give up on the rock wall. Don't forget the fact that you have a gun on you too. He won't be as forgiving as I have been."

I heard her give a disgusted grunt. She knew I would do it. She thought the situation over for a few seconds before finally grabbing my wrist and saying, "I'll have to show him to you." She rummaged around some more in the bushes before pulling out the backpack she had stuffed food into. My nose caught the smell of meat and knew the food was still in there.

"Him?" I asked incredulously.

She dragged me up a small hill and didn't hesitate before plunging into the large forest the camp played capture the flag in. It was pretty creepy in the woods that time of night. The noise of chirping crickets surrounded the place. Other calls of animals rang up every so often. It was pitch black because the moon was being blocked by swaying and creaking tree branches and leaves. I stumbled many times in the darkness, but Emerald held tightly onto me to quickly pull me back up. She must have been there many times before, because she traveled the terrain like an expert.

After five minutes or so, I could hear the faint babbling of the creek that split the forest in two. She slowed her quick pace as we neared the stream. She pushed away a few branches, and we finally stumbled out into the clearing. The moon shone brightly off the moving waters of the creek. It lit our faces up in a silvery glow.

In this new light, Emerald looked like a lost little girl. I could tell she was scared about telling me this. This was a secret she hadn't told anyone, not even her siblings in Aphrodite cabin. I tried my best to comfort her by lightly squeezing her hand. She looked back at me with a weak smile.

Silently, she let my wrist go and kneeled down to unzip her backpack. I watched her in wonder as she took out a large jar filled with flying insects. She spun the lid off and whispered something into it. Suddenly all the insects lit up into brilliant different colors, like multicolored fireflies. They filtered out of the jar she placed by the creek and gracefully flew around us.

"Whoa!" I whispered with a quiet laugh. "Where did you learn that trick?"

"They were a gift from my mom last year," she said quietly. "She asked what I thought was the most beautiful thing on earth besides her of course. I said fireflies, so she gave me these. They don't really do anything like your Riptide or Annabeth's invisible hat thing, but I think they're pretty."

I laughed a little from the understatement. They were truly beautiful the way they flittered around. Their glow was just enough to illuminate our small area. They were all different colors, so there was a like a rainbow surrounding us. I'd never seen anything like it.

"Okay, this is it," Emerald said as she came to stand next to me. A piece of ham was in between her forefinger and thumb. "Ready?" she asked me nervously. I nodded with a smile. She gave a sigh before waving the meat into the air and giving a certain low whistle.

I held my breath as some bushes across the creek started to shake. I darted my eyes to Emerald to see if she was reacting like I was. I was shocked to see that she was smiling from ear to ear. I looked back to the bushes and gasped as something burst out of them. The small creature soared over the creek and caught the piece of ham right out of the girl's fingers and sat down behind us to eat its prize.

All I could do was watch it with a very stunned stare. Emerald ignored me as she sat down next to the creature and scratched behind its ears. She giggled as it squawked and licked her face with happiness. She began to feed it more scraps she had stolen from the mess hall at dinner.

"It's a…a…sphinx," I finally managed to choke out.

"His name is Robin," she said. "And he's just a baby sphinx. He can't even fly or talk yet."

The baby sphinx was only two feet tall with a lion's body and a red falcon's head. It had white and black downy feathers around his face, but its chest was blood red like a robin's, hint the name. He had little rounded lion ears, and instead of a beak, a lion's muzzle. Its little red wings made his balance awkward, so he was constantly falling and flaring around. His paws looked too big for his body. I have to admit that it was pretty cute.

I slowly kneeled down next to Emerald. She gave me a piece of meat and motioned for me to give it to Robin who was chasing his tail. I held it out. Right away the sphinx caught a whiff of it. His head popped up, and he bounded toward me. He tore the meat away from me and gulped it down in a second.

Emerald laughed at my surprised expression as Robin purred loudly and rubbed his head against my hand like a cat would. The mini sphinx then crawled up in my lap and waited for more free food from us. He was fascinated with the hand the older sphinx had scratched that morning. He sniffed it and rubbed against it lovingly. I tried not to show my concern of this to Emerald. I had the basis of an idea growing in the back of my mind about what was going on. Mamma sphinx and baby sphinx in one day. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

"How did you find him?" I asked Emerald.

"It was really weird," she said with a laugh. "I was leaving my house to go to school one morning and someone ran past me. As the guy did, he shoved a small bundle of blankets in my hands. When it started to squirm, I unfolded the blankets and there Robin was. He was only the size of a small kitten then. That year he grew up in my room. He was really easy to take care of and hide from my dad because he is part of the military and hasn't visited in a month or so. But then I had to go to camp. I had to bring him along because I don't trust any of my maids to keep good care of him. So I've kept him in the woods and have been giving him scraps of food."

"And you've been hiding the food behind my cabin," I said, linking the pieces together in my head finally.

"I only started that the night before," she said. "The meat smell was too much for my cabin and my siblings were starting to notice, so I took my backpack to your cabin because it is pretty close to the woods and there was only one of you in there at night. Apparently, you have good ears, and I woke you up both times."

"Actually, I'm a hard sleeper," I said. I couldn't help but smile faintly as Robin lightly licked my chin with his tiny sand paper tongue. I summed up my courage and told Emerald, "I think Robin is what the sphinx thought was stolen from her. It's not everyday that I see two sphinxes."

"I know," Emerald said quietly in despair. She was shivering even though the night air was warm from the peak of summer. "I just don't know what to do. I need help. I'm like Robin's mother. He won't leave me even if I tell him to."

"And you can't just walk up to the real mother sphinx and give the baby over to her and say you're sorry," I added. "You'd be eaten in a heart beat."

"Then what do I do?" Emerald asked. "I can't even keep him here in the woods anymore. He's been getting extra hungry, so that is why I've been stealing food. I can't keep that up. What if someone else catches me in the act? I don't even want to think what would happen to Robin and me if Chiron found out. I've never seen him so mad at someone when you three talked to that sphinx this morning."

"Yeah, he was pretty angry," I muttered while in a deep thought. "Well, at least you have an extra hand to help you with this now. A small town is around a mile away from here. It has a little book store. I'm sure I can get some books on taking care of falcons and lions. They might just help. Do you have money?"

She smiled as if I asked her if she could do 50 pushups in a half a minute and she could do that many in five seconds. She pulled out a credit card from her back pocket and handed it to me while saying, "I have plenty. Being a military brat has its advantages."

"Dude, this is a credit card," I said stupidly. "We're, like, in ninth grade! Since when did freshmen get their own credit cards?"

She laughed at me. Apparently she didn't come into contact with poor kids like me often. "Don't worry about it, Percy," she said. "And I can't thank you enough for keeping this secret for me. You're…you're a good friend."

"You're not so bad yourself, you know?" I said with a smile. I eyed her pistol and asked, "So I guess with your dad in the military, you find those easily."

"Ever since I was five my dad had me around guns," she laughed while taking it out of where she had it stuffed in between her belt and jeans. "I know too much about them for my own good. But, yeah, he gave this one to me a month ago when we last saw each other. He gives them to me with no ammo, though. Empty and useless."

"At least you see your dad," I said bitterly. "I've only seen mine once."

"Its all part of being a demigod," she said calmly. "You have to learn to live with the pain of never seeing a parent. I've dealt with never seeing two."

I winced. "Sorry. Here I am complaining about never seeing my dad, and you don't see both of your parents often," I said. "I don't know how I would be able to live without being with my mother."

"It gets lonely, but like I just said, I've learned to deal with it," she said. "Unlike you, though, I know my mother very well. We've had at least five shopping sprees together that last hours. We really get to know each other. She does them with the other Aphrodite kids too, so she doesn't play favorites. She's great."

It was weird hearing this. I would have never had guessed Aphrodite could be the loving parent type. Most demigods only saw their god parent a few times in their life, usually on birthdays and given a gift. But shopping sprees for hours? That was unheard of for any god. I guess Aphrodite really was the goddess of love. Either that…or she really likes to shop.

We then fell silent for a few minutes as we watched the dazzling colors of the fireflies. We then packed up the insects, waved good bye to Robin, and then departed the forest. By the time I got back to my cabin and fell onto my bed, it had to be around three or four in the morning. Before I drifted off to dreamland, I whispered in a prayer, "Thanks, dad."

A/N: I hope you guys liked the chapter. I loved typing it! The next one has some action in it. But please be kind on this Valentine's Day and give me a review! Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4 Wrong Kid to be Kidnapped

A/N: Finally we get into my big action chapter! I loved typing this one! But if some of my sentences seem choppy, it's only because I wrote this for a finale project to a Creative Writing class I took last semester. I wanted to go out with a bang, so I wrote six full chapters in two weeks. This chapter took me the longest to type because it was like a turning point in the story, so I had to speed through it. But I hope you readers like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians characters.

Chapter 4: Wrong Kid to be Kidnapped

The hardest thing to do the next morning, besides waking up, was pretending to Annabeth and Thalia that I was lost about what to do like they were. We spent that morning with thick protector gloves and aprons on as we cleaned pots and pans in sinks filled with steaming lava. Kitchen patrol with the cleaning harpies was one of the worst cleaning duties a camper could imagine. Temperatures were scorching, and the work is highly dangerous. I decided I would rather climb that new killer rock wall again than suffer through that kind of work.

"Anyone have an idea what to do next?" Thalia asked us as she dumped a few plates into the sink all at once. We all screamed as lava splashed over the edge of the sink and almost burned through our shoes. It was a good thing that we stepped back just in time.

"Don't do that again!" I snapped at her. I gave a yelp as I realized that a drop of the lava had landed on the tip of my shoe. It burst into flames, and Annabeth had to throw a whole bucket of water on it for it to be put out.

"Sorry," Thalia said sheepishly. "This is my first time doing dish duty."

"Apparently," I said with a weak smile. "But I have no clue how to handle this thing with the sphinx." I hated to lie straight through my teeth to two of my best friends, but I knew they didn't know Emerald like I did. They wouldn't be so forgiving toward her if they found out she had a baby sphinx. I couldn't tell them, not yet anyway.

"What do you think was stolen?" Annabeth asked suddenly. "It must be really important to her, because she wouldn't have tracked a kid down for so long for a simple piece of treasure she was assigned to guard. Maybe it is not even a treasure. Maybe it's deeper than that."

Sometimes Annabeth could be too smart. "I don't know," I lied with a shrug. I had to bite the tip of my tongue to avoid blurting everything out. I'm a very lousy secret keeper. Lying to friends is probably the hardest thing I can do. This was just killing me from the inside.

"I think you're right, Annabeth," Thalia said as she looked up in thought. "If it's not treasure, then she wouldn't be breaking the rules. That means everything she is doing is allowed."

"I don't get these rules," I said. "How do you guys know all these things?"

"Don't worry about it," Annabeth said with a sly smile, "You don't look stupid asking questions."

"No, I'm serious," I said with my cheeks flushing. I hated looking like an idiot in front of my friends. "Why are sphinxes under rules and we aren't?"

"Well, it is more like guidelines," Thalia said. "Sphinxes aren't as powerful as other monsters. They don't like forming packs and would rather be alone for all their lives. And they aren't as powerful when they step outside their home or territory. So stronger monsters and some gods actually store their treasures where a sphinx lives and says they can do whatever they want with whoever comes near. They are not allowed, and usually don't want to, go away from that place."

"So if the monster or god finds out that the sphinx left to track someone down and abandoned the treasure just for that, they get pretty mad," Annabeth finished. "They come after the sphinx and drag him or her back to where they were assigned. But if a sphinx leaves for personal or other reasons, the monster or god can't do anything about it."

"That doesn't sound very stable," I pointed out. "Who comes up with this junk?"

The girls rolled their eyes. "Like I said, they are more like guidelines," Thalia said. "We agree with you. The rules just don't make much sense to us demigods, but I guess they work on sphinxes because they have gone by them for so many years."

We fell under silence for a few more minutes. I mulled around in my own thoughts about the situation. If the sphinx was after her stolen baby that meant Emerald was in for a world of trouble. I felt sorry for the girl. She hadn't stolen the baby but was only forced to raise it by some stranger. And how did the stranger steal the baby in the first place? My biggest question was why someone would want to go take something that dangerous. There are some crazy people in this world.

"So, how many dishes do we have left?" I asked, trying my hardest to sound joyful.

Both girls looked at the three foot high stacks of plates in the dirty pile then looked back at me with depressed faces. "From the looks of it," Annabeth said with a sigh, "A lot."

"Swell," I muttered.

That night I waited till all the cabins called lights out. I had my flashlight and Riptide in my back pocket of my jeans, and I had sneakers and a black T-shirt already on. Emerald snuck up to my cabin's doorway a few minutes after midnight.

"Just wanted to tell you to be extremely careful," she said once we met. "The mother sphinx might be patrolling the borders."

"Don't worry," I said. "I have a plan that will make me become invisible. I'll buy the books and be back in an hour or two. I'll give them to you tomorrow night."

She gave me a skeptical look before running off into the woods. I made my own way to the Athena cabin. I really hated to do this, but I needed to borrow Annabeth's invisible cap. I would have asked her for it, but then she would have asked what I needed it for. Of course I couldn't answer that question, so asking was out of the equation. I had to steal it for the night. I would have to beat myself up for being a pathetic friend to her later.

The cabin was pitch-black. A few light snores came from random people, but it was practically silent in there. I held my breath as I tip-toed noiselessly into the room. I found Annabeth's bed and quickly pulled out a stuffed suitcase from under her bunk. The zipper was one of the loudest things I had ever heard, but no one was awaken as I unzipped the noisy thing, grabbed the cap, zipped it back up, and then left in a hurry.

I slipped the cap on at the borders. I picked up my pace at the bottom of the hill and kept a steady jog all the way to the small town I had passed with my mom when coming from the city to the camp. The air was moist and foggy as I smoothly raced past country side. The road was slick with a recent rain. I took in the night air with a smile. It was nice to get away from the camp for a little bit.

The town was like a cluster of little lights. I slipped the cap off when nearing it and put it in my front pocket. I slowed my jog to a walk when I reached a sidewalk. Barely anyone was out at this time. It was then that I realized that the book store wouldn't be open at two in the morning. I smacked my forehead from my stupidity.

To my surprise, though, a few shops still had people in them. I could see faint lights coming from their windows as people counted up their sales of that day. I quickly found the book shop I was looking for and tapped lightly on the glass door with a hopeful smile. An old man came to the door with wide, ancient eyes.

"It is awfully early in the morning to be coming by, young man," he said with a chuckle that sounded more like a cough.

"I know," I said awkwardly, "And I know this might sound weird, sir, but I need to buy some books."

"Oh, that does sound strange," the old man said. He finally broke out into a toothless grin and said warmly, "But you are welcome to buy as many as you want. Business isn't as booming as it used to be. I need all the sales I can get."

"Thank you so much!" I said with a bright smile crossing my face. This was the first stroke of luck I had in a long time. He turned on some more lights for me to see. It didn't take long for me to find the ones I wanted. Who knew there were books on carrying for small animals? Who wrote about that anyway?

"What kind of pet do you have back at home?" the old man asked me as he scanned the books into the cash register.

"Um…a kitten," I lied. He looked at me over his glasses. "And a bird," I added feebly. I was looking pretty stupid at this point…either that or gay, take your pick. I avoided eye contact as I gave him the credit card. He swiped it and gave it back to me along with my plastic bag of books.

"Come again," he said as I left. I just smiled back with a halfhearted wave. When I was a few blocks away from the book store and close to the outskirts of the town, a man suddenly stepped out of the shadows being cast off from a building. I came to a weary stop when seeing the man.

The guy was tall with slicked back black hair. His black eyes were shifty. I guessed he was in his late twenties or early thirties. It was hard to tell in the dim lighting of the small town. All I knew was that I didn't trust the guy. I reached for Riptide but stopped when realizing it wouldn't hurt a normal human. Its blade could only pierce through magical beings and demigods.

"What is a kid doing all alone out in the middle of no where at this time of night?" the man asked me shadily. He eyed the plastic book store bag I was carrying and smiled crookedly at me. "Buying books, huh?"

"If you're here to mug me, then go ahead," I said. I tried putting little emotion into my voice.

"No, kid, I'm just asking some simple questions," the man said. He was trying so hard to sound friendly that it came out creepy. I had to resist the urge to give a shiver as a spike of fear slithered down my spine. This man was more than just a guy trying to steal some money from a kid.

"What do you want?" I asked. I gave a tentative step backwards while never taking my eyes away from the man. My demigod senses were spiked and warning me of danger. I had to get out of there.

"Let's see what books you got," he said while lunging for my bag.

"Back off!" I shouted while bringing a knee up and slamming it into his face. He gave a cry of pain as he shied away to recoup from the attack. I wasted no time and started to run away. I wasn't fast enough, though. The man latched onto my arm and brought me toward him.

I doubled over as the man kneed me right in the stomach. The air was knocked right out of me. A flash of panic overtook me as I gasped for air that wouldn't come. By the time I was getting some of that lost air back, the man had dragged me to the back of a large white van. He already had the two double doors open, and he was ready to throw me in there.

Thinking quickly, I rammed my elbow into his chest. He gave a sputtering grunt before pushing me down onto the road. The cold asphalt coarsely cut into my exposed skin on my hands. I ignored the pain as I tried to scramble to my feet and shout for help.

The man didn't give me the chance. He shoved a foot down upon the spot on my back between the shoulder blades. I gave a cry as my chest smashed back against the road, almost driving the air out of me again. I gave a grunt of anger as I grabbed the man's other leg with one of my bleeding hands and yanked it out from under him. He gave a cry as he came tumbling down to his butt.

I slipped a few times on the damp cement before finally getting some traction and managing to get myself to my feet. I only took a few steps before the man caught the end of my T-shirt and forced me backwards. I tripped halfway there and whacked my head against the bumper of the car. The hit was so brain jolting, I couldn't even wince.

The man loomed over me with an ominous smile playing at the corners of his thin lips. I tried to get up and fight, but I was too dizzy. The side of my vision was blurring and black, threatening to take me into unconsciousness. All I could do was mildly protest as the man tied my wrists together behind my back with a thin rope before callously throwing me into the back of his van.

The slam of the double doors was like explosions to my ears. I winced when I forced myself to get up and lean my back against the side of the van. It was all going to Hades in a hand basket. Everything had been going so well till now. The temptation to cry was strong, but I pushed it aside. Since when did crying get you out of being kidnapped?

"I've been dealing with demigods like you for quite awhile," the man said as he slipped into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut. I winced at the harsh noise. My head was still suffering from the blow.

"What do you want with me?" I demanded.

He held up one of the books I had bought. "From the looks of these, you are the lucky winner who now has my baby sphinx," he said with a cruel smile. "I wonder what happened to the demigod girl I gave it to a year ago."

I ignored his question and asked, "How do you know anything about demigods?"

"My fiancée, Jessica, was one," he answered, a far away glint in his evil eyes. "She told me everything about the gods and stuff. Oh, those were the good old days when Jessica and I were still together." His eyes and tone of voice darkened when he said, "But all that ended when that sphinx killed her! I wanted to make that monster pay, so I took its dumb baby and pawned it off to the only demigod I knew of besides Jessica."

"You…you know Emerald?" I asked him in shock.

"Of course I do," he said with a wicked laugh, "She's my little sister."

"Sister?!" I shouted. Since when did Emerald have an all human brother? I guess her dad had already been married before hooking up with Aphrodite or was divorced.

"Don't sound so surprised, kid," he said while eyeing his rearview mirror. He started the van with a quick twist of some jingly keys. The engine sputtered a few times. After a few colorful words from the driver, the engine croaked into pitiable life and jerked forward.

The sudden move threw me off balance. Gravity sent me to the cold floor of the van and slide all the way back to the doors. It took a few tries, but I finally was able to get back into control and sit up with my back against the double doors. It was a good position, though, because the side of one of the doors was sharp enough to cut through the rope binding my wrists together. I quickly started to rub the material against the sharp edge.

"So who's kid are you?" he asked me suddenly. I gave him my famous go-kill-yourself glare and didn't answer. "Well, Athena is out of the question," he said with a laugh. It crumbled shortly after when he caught my glower through the rearview mirror.

It didn't take long for the ropes to become weak enough for me to break them myself. I wasn't ready to escape just yet, though. I was in a great position to get information from this guy. I would never get a good opportunity like this one again.

I began to work my angles. "My dad is Poseidon," I muttered. I saw his eyebrows rise in the rearview mirror. I had peaked his interest. There hadn't been a Poseidon kid since World War 2. From the reaction I was getting, he must have known about the deal Zeus, Hades, and my father had made so long ago.

"So is Em dead?" he asked, "She must be because that conceited girl would never have given up her dumb new pet that easily. She must treat that thing like it's a hamster or something."

"She's fine, actually," I answered darkly. I really didn't like talking to this guy, but I needed some of my questions answered. If I worked hard enough, I wouldn't even have to ask them. "And she's been a better mother than you would expect."

"Em a mother…never!" he said with an unbelieving laugh. "Wait, don't tell me she still has it!" he said with astonishment coming to his face. He looked back at me and shook his head in doubt.

"Who else would have it?" I asked.

"You," he answered. I slowly shook my head no. He frowned deeply at this news. He then started to talk to himself. "Okay," he said, "Calm down. You have a kid from the camp. I'll just get him to tell me where the demigod camp is and lead me right to Emerald. Girl won't know what hit her!"

"Really?" I asked him. I put my hands behind my head and stared up at him with a sly smile spreading across my face. It took him a second to realize I wasn't tied up anymore. Just as his head spun around to check on me because he didn't trust his rearview mirror, I took out my flashlight and aimed it right into his eyes.

A string of swears exploded from the man as the light blinded him completely. I would have laughed if the van hadn't swerved out of control. I was slammed against the side of the van till the man finally got smart enough to press the breaks. I flew forward till I collided with the passenger seat. The flashlight was flung away from my grip and rolled across the floor of the van.

The man grabbed a fist full of the back of my shirt and yanked my face up to where he was sitting. I didn't let him do anymore than that. I brought up a leg and kicked the side of the man's head with a fierce battle yell. He let me go, and I jumped up beside him in the driver's seat. I kept my foot out as I pinned the man against the side window by his neck.

"You're such a loving big brother," I snarled in disgust. "That will definitely win you some extra bonus points in the Underworld." He opened his mouth to say something, but I only pressed my foot deeper into his throat.

I grabbed the keys out of the ignition and turned around to see a gun barrel being pointed at my forehead. My body ran cold as I froze in fear. Slowly, I backed away from the man till I was half way seated in the passenger seat. As a demigod, I was open to attack from the magical world and the human world. A gun could kill me, but that didn't stop me from acting brash.

I flung my foot into the air and hit the guy's hand holding the gun. A deafening shot rang throughout the van as the man pulled the trigger. My heart seemed to spring up my throat when I looked down to see a hole in the seat by my shoulder that was beginning to bleed. I had only been nicked by the bullet, but the adrenaline was keeping me from feeling any of the pain thankfully.

The gun wasn't an automatic, so he had to cock it before shooting me again. Fortunately, the guy wasn't all that fast with the job, and I got to him before he could raise a thumb. I pushed myself up while simultaneously curling a hand into a fist. I swung a powerful blow that hit the guy in the jaw. His head snapped to the side as he fell back against the driver seat.

The gun clattered to the floor of the van, and we both dived for it. With grunts, we both wrestled for control over the deadly weapon. Through the confusion, the gun had somehow gotten cocked and someone pulled the trigger. I flinched as the windshield suddenly shattered into millions of pieces. The crystal clear glass bounced off the dashboard and onto both of us. I felt something like paper cuts on my arms and legs as I was scratched by the sharp edges of the glass.

Now that there was an easy way out, I decided to take it. Another hard punch to the guy's face gave me time to take hold of the gun. Right away I flung it out of shattered windshield then hopped through the broken window after it. My sneakers slid across the smooth metal of the van's hood. The glass caught between the metal and my shoes made an awful screeching noise.

I landed in a crouch on a deserted road close to the camp. Thinking fast, I took out Annabeth's cap and shoved it on my head. I couldn't have been quicker with it. Just then the man rounded the front of the van. I backed away from the van while still keeping my eyes on the man. He was swearing up a storm as he ran around the vehicle. Annabeth's cap had seriously saved my butt.

It ended up I was only five miles away from the camp. Too bad it took me the rest of the night to run that far. My wounds slowed me down tremendously. I couldn't even move my shoulder because of the nicked bullet wound. But I somehow pulled through and slowly jogged the whole way there. Demigods can do amazing things when they put their minds to it.

It had to be about six or seven in the morning when I finally stopped at the top of Half-Blood hill. I winced while looking myself over. I was bloody, dirty, and dripping with sweat. I had to shake the pain away again as I trudged down the hill, past the big house and the cabins, and all the way to the beach.

With a relieved sigh, I collapsed into the sea's waves. I waded out to a drop off and let my body sink into its depths. I watched as my wounds and scratches gradually faded away. My distressed mind slowed down to a calm rhythm. I stayed there hovering in the waters for maybe a half an hour.

Schools of small fish checked me out before swimming off. I knew their rumors would somehow get to my father. Great, that was all I needed, rumors of me taking early morning dips in the sea to clean up after fights. After some more schools, I shooed off any other fish that ventured near.

When I finally left my sanctuary, I was completely dry and clean of any scars. I returned Annabeth's cap to her noisy suitcase before walking back to my own cabin and flopping down on my bed with a tired sigh. What a night! All that and I still didn't have Emerald's books. I didn't let my mind care about them as I drifted off to dreamland.

I wasn't allowed to go down peacefully, though. The awakening conch shell echoed into my cabin to indicate the start of a new camp day right as my eyelids closed.

"Hades, take me now!" I wailed miserably into my pillow.

A/N: I like that last line. It made me chuckle when I typed it. I know, I'm weird. But please give a review anyways. See you readers next week with another chapter!


	5. Chapter 5 The Truth Comes OutAlmost

A/N: Not much to say. Just please review when you're done reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians' characters.

Chapter 5: Truth Comes Out…Almost

Dish duty that day was torture. When you're in and out of dreamland because of lack of sleep, you don't exactly pay attention to what you're doing. I almost caught all of us on fire about five times in the first hour. Finally my friends just couldn't take it.

"What is you're problem?" Thalia exploded.

"I pulled an all-nighter," I mumbled back. "I'm extremely tired."

"You look awful!" Annabeth exclaimed as she looked me over with critical gray eyes.

"Thanks," I said sarcastically. "You look nice too."

"Why did you stay up last night?" Thalia asked. Her voice was more serious now. "You weren't dreaming about _him_ were you?"

My eyebrows rose in surprise of her question. I had never told Thalia about my dreams with Kronos in them. I guessed since she had also been in those dreams sometimes, she knew I dreamed of the Titan. But I hadn't had one of those creepy dreams in maybe a year, thankfully. "No," I answered. "Have you?"

"Nope," she answered. This seemed to lighten her mood a bit. "So what kept you up?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. "Soda maybe."

"Caffeine doesn't turn you into this kind of a mess," Annabeth stated bluntly. She's always had a brilliant way with words.

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not pretty today like you guys," I retorted. All the questions were putting me into a grumpy mood.

"Aw!" Thalia said jokingly. "He thinks we're pretty!" I rolled my eyes as they giggled over me. Girls could be so strange. I needed friends of my own gender so I wouldn't be so confused all the time with these two. Thalia and Annabeth were great, but sometimes I missed Grover and Tyson…and Luke. The guy was so cool to me before I discovered he had switched sides. So many times I've wished for him to turn away from his destructive ways, but no amount of wishing is going to bring him back.

We plunged back into silence as we started again with the laborious scrubbing of the dishes. This time I tried not to think about how tired I was. Instead, I focused on what had happened last night. What was Emerald and I to do? Did Emerald know how dangerous her brother was? I worried profusely for the girl.

"You okay?" Annabeth suddenly asked me in a low whisper when Thalia set off for more dirty dishes for us to wash. Her tone was so caring that I almost slipped and spilled the beans about Emerald and the baby sphinx right there. She knew I was troubled, and it hurt me so badly to deceive her like this.

"I'm fine," I lied. I forced a weak smile. "Just sleepy."

"You're a really bad liar, Percy," she told me. We looked deeply into each others eyes, and I saw the hurt I was causing her to have. Man, she was a good friend! Guilt almost overtook me, but I held onto my now unbelievable story for Emerald's sake.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth," I said quietly to her. "Soon, though, I'll tell you what is going on."

"Don't hurt yourself," she told me. A smile crossed her face as she added, "I know you'll do the right thing in the end…whatever you're doing behind our backs."

I moaned jokingly as she said this. "You're great at bringing on the guilt trip, aren't you?" I dreaded the hour I was to tell her about the secret Emerald and I both shared. She wouldn't be too happy I kept that all to my self this whole time, but at least she was open to forgiveness.

She grinned back and said slyly, "I try my best."

I plopped down on a warm rock with a worn out sigh. I had just climbed the new rock wall again. This time the climb was easier but still hard. A breeze blasted against my face and chest, giving me a second to savor the feeling of an AC. Like before, I stared out at the breathtaking landscape and took it all in with a deep intake of the sweet smelling air. I was going to really miss this place when I had to go back to the city and face my biggest fear…high school.

"Why?" I heard someone gasp from below. I grinned wryly and looked down at Emerald who was slowly climbing to the top where I was. She glanced up at me, saw my evil smile, and glared daggers. She wasn't too pleased that I had called a meeting for us on top of the mountain, but I was just thankful she came.

"Don't you like climbing?" I called down to her. She ignored me and took her good sweet time for the rest of the ascend. Finally she joined me on the rock. She gasped for air like a dog on a hot summer day before sitting beside me with a short groan of complaint.

"Why did you want us to meet up here?" she asked me with a strong grumpy attitude accompanying her voice. No surprise there.

"Because no one climbs this mountain at this time of the day," I answered with a shrug. Truthfully, I needed to keep my mind busy while waiting for the girl. I was getting mad and irritated about my situation and needed to get it out civilly.

So I had vigorously scaled the thing while talking, or more like yelling, to myself. Soon, though, my frustration evaporated and my thoughts turned clear. Getting it all out had put me in a better mood, a mood that could take the fact that I had to tell Emerald about her dire position.

The Aphrodite demigod had been pitted against a mother sphinx in whatever dangerous game her human brother was cruelly playing. Telling anyone their sibling was evil was a hard thing to do. I hated to be the one to give her the bad news, but someone had to be the messenger. Hermes must have a pretty crummy job. I don't know why the god likes it so much.

"Do you have the books?" Emerald asked. The endorphins of the physical exercise had changed her mood into a more cheerful one. She stretched out on her rock in a relaxed manner while I stayed tensed with my feet dangling over the edge of the cliff.

"Well, no," I answered after a slight pause.

"You can give them to me tonight in the forest then," she said with a commanding tone in her voice. She liked to take charge of things, too bad that was soon going to end.

"I hate to tell you this, Emerald, but I didn't bring the books back last night," I told her in a rush of words. Her green eyes widened as she sat up. Her face then flushed with anger. She was going to rip me apart if I didn't explain myself quick!

"Ug! That came out too vague," I said with a wince. "I actually bought the books with a stroke of luck, but then I got kidnapped."

"You're pathetic, Percy," she spat at me. Her wet eyes were made into narrow slits before she got up to leave. I tried to say something, but she beat me there when she spun around. Salty tears rolled down her cheeks as she let me have it.

"I thought I could trust you!" she screamed her heart's pain. All I could do was sit there, mortified, as she went one. "I let you see Robin, I give you money for books, and I open up to you because we both know I needed help, and all you can do is say you've been freaking kidnapped? I'm not stupid, Percy! I'm not like those other girls! I can take the hint you don't like me and all you ever wanted was to find out what was stolen from the sphinx. I…"

I sprung to my feet and cut her off before she made an idiot out of herself some more. I was practically killing myself over this dangerous secret. "Hey! Whoa! Slow down!" I shouted at her. I actually laughed at the irony before saying, "I'm not betraying anyone here. Calm down and let me explain."

"No! I'm tired of your lies!"

I grabbed her arm before she could leave. She struggled against me, but I steadily kept my grip. If I didn't blurt it out soon everything would spin out of my control. That wouldn't be a happy ending.

"I'm telling you the truth when I say I went to the town, bought the books for you, and on my way back your brother kidnapped me! He was the one who gave you Robin a year ago. He's a crazed up fruit loop! He said he stole Robin in the first place because his demigod girlfriend was killed by that sphinx that showed up the other day. I'm not making this up! I can't be because I didn't even know you had a brother till last night. I know I sound like I'm a few French fries short of a Happy Meal, but I'm telling you the truth!"

I stood back and waited for her answer. For a minute all she did was stare back at me as she fitted pieces of the puzzle together in her head. She finally gave a sniffle and sat down on the rocks. She hugged her knees close to her with a frightened expression haunting her beautiful features.

"Please say something," I said as I sat down next to her. I had never seen her like this. It was starting to scare me. I always had seen Emerald as an emotionally strong person with confidence as radiant as the sun. Now she was stone cold and on the fringe of a break down.

"I never realized Kevin was still hurt after Jessica's death," she said. Her luminous eyes looked over to me as she continued. "He always liked to keep things in. I mean, I saw him cry a few times when he announced she died in a car accident, but a year later he looked like he had moved on…he was even dating again. I should have been there with him, but I let his anger turn me away."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's always had an anger problem," she said. "He has to take pills for it. They stopped him being violent, but he still feels all that anger and hatred. I stayed away from him because we could just be eating together and I would burst into tears. Oh! It drove me crazy, so I stopped hanging around him."

"Do you know why he would jeopardize your life by giving you Robin?" I asked her. I was starting to see sparks of her normal self now.

She shook her head. "I don't know," she said somberly. "I always thought Kevin and I were pretty close."

"Apparently, you guys aren't," I muttered.

She gave a small chuckle before asking, "And what is this story about you getting kidnapped?" We laughed at how implausible it sounded. I told her in detail about that night, all the way up until I returned Annabeth's cap.

"Don't ruin your friendship with her and Thalia over me," she said nobly. She smiled slickly as she added, "I have a feeling you're going to have a bright future with one of them."

"What's that suppose to mean?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Boys can be so clueless."

"Hey!" I objected.

"It's true!" she teased with a laugh.

Our fun was cut short when a faint scream from far off sliced through the warm afternoon air and sent a cold chill down my spin. I tried to pin point the location it had come from by looking to where the other campers' below us had their gazes fixed upon.

The cry had come from a girl that was running from where she had been in the forest. A pit formed in my stomach as I watched her run to Chiron who had galloped out of the Big House at the sound of the high pitched alarming shriek. This wasn't good.

"We got to find Robin before they do!" I told Emerald as I sprung to my feet. She didn't hesitate as she did the same. That little sphinx cub was like her own baby. She would do anything to protect Robin.

We rushed down the mountain at break-neck speed. My mind focused on only getting down and getting to the baby sphinx. It took us less than a few minutes to jump down from rock to rock till we were on flat surface again. Chiron and some other campers, mostly Ares cabin kids who were ready for some action, had already ventured into the depths of the forest. Emerald and I sprinted across the open field and plunged into the trees and brush with determination in every movement.

I fell back and let Emerald lead the way. She knew the place much better than I did. The girl made that certain whistle she had used two nights ago to call out the sphinx. After a few minutes of a desperate search, Robin showed himself with a small meow. He looked overjoyed to see Emerald again as he attacked her face with wet licks.

"Okay, cute stuff is cool," I said in a hurry. "Now let's run over to my cabin and keep him there till this mess dies down." She nodded, in the same frantic state of mind as I was, and we turned to leave. We then stopped in our tracks with stunned gasps. We had been caught red handed.

"What is this?" Chiron asked firmly yet with some slight confusion. He stood on a small hill top with about a dozen kids behind him. They all wore astonished expressions on their jaw dropped faces. I had never seen so many Ares kids so shocked before. If I wasn't the one being accused, I would have laughed.

"I can explain!" I said, my head reeling for an excuse or way out of this miserable mess. Everything I didn't want was happening all at once. I glanced back at Emerald and saw her fear as she held Robin close to her chest. The poor little creature had felt the change of mood and was shivering, his big eyes wide in confusion.

I already knew what was to come. She would get banned from the camp, never again allowed to meet up each year with her demigod siblings. A letter would go to her dad stating her big mistake. Parents didn't take too kindly to letters telling them their kid had brought a baby sphinx into a camp. Robin would be taken away from his surrogate mother, maybe even killed because it was considered a monster. She would never see her baby, her passion in life, ever again.

She didn't deserve this.

It took me only a second to decide what to do. I spun around and grabbed the baby sphinx out of Emerald's arms while hissing at her, "Do not say anything!" There was a second when she didn't let go of Robin out of fear of putting his future into my hands, but she trusted me and let me handle the situation.

I turned back around and said with my eyes pinned on the ground in front of me, "I'm the one who brought this baby sphinx through the border. I…I'm the one who put the camp in danger by stealing him from his mother." I let out a long sigh as the lie had to be pushed off my tongue. "It was me."

The feel of every eye on you is a very exposing sensation. The kids took my words in as they all stared critically at me. I dared to meet Chiron's eyes and wished I didn't. I expected them to be sharp and callous, but they only showed disappointment and perplexity, which was somehow worse.

"Well," the centaur finally said after a long sigh, "I believe we have found our thief. Thank you, Percy, for…for telling the truth." I flinched as he said this. His tone told me he knew I was covering for Emerald. He just couldn't do anything about it.

Chiron came forward and looked down at me. I avoided his gaze that was pleading for me to stop my nonsense. I pulled Robin closer to me and tried not to think about what I had just done. I couldn't change my mind now. This was my future. I had chosen it; I would have to follow it.

"I'll call your mother tonight, Percy," Chiron said softly. "Expect to leave camp Half-Blood tomorrow morning. I'm sorry it had to come to this. Follow me to the Big House, please." I bit my lower lip and nodded as if accepting my punishment.

Before leaving with Chiron, I turned to glance once more at Emerald. "Percy, no," she whispered while shaking her head. She was desperately trying to hold back tears that were threatening to escape her eyes. I gave her my last act of comfort by forcing a weak smile to my lips. All I could do was hope that it was more reassuring to her than it was for me. It was just another lie piled on top of the stack I was quickly collecting.

A/N: I love cliffhangers! Review please! I'll see you readers next weekend.


	6. Chapter 6 Outsmarting the Wise

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I was busy last weekend with rugby and stuff. Well, enjoy and review!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except for the sphinxes and Emerald. Everything else belongs to Rick.

Chapter 6: Outsmarting the Wise

The next morning I woke up before anyone else was awake so I could pack my bags. My mom would be there in the afternoon, but I wanted the place to myself before departing. It was peaceful and depressing all at once.

It was hard just putting my clothes into my suitcase. I really hated to leave this place. Hopefully, they would let me come back in a year or so. I would be fine except for the rest of that summer, which I dreaded because it was going to be painfully boring.

I cringed when feeling Emerald silently stand at my door. Her hard stare felt like hot coals on the back of my neck. I didn't want to talk to her at that moment. I knew she didn't like what I had done the other day. I almost wanted her to talk me out of it, but I knew that wasn't possible for her. I could be pretty stubborn when I wanted to. Plus, we both knew all too well Robin would be better off if I controlled where he was to go.

"What do you need, Em?" I asked her as emotionlessly as possible.

"I can't let you do this for me," Emerald said as she rushed to my side after dropping a duffle bag at my door. She started to grab cloths in my suitcase and throw them back onto my unmade bed in precise movements.

I scowled at her while shoving them back in. "I can take this punishment," I said with harshness in my voice. "Can't you see where I'm coming from? You don't deserve being banned. I can pull some strings and come back in a year or two."

We both latched onto a pair of jeans and pulled on our ends with grunts. She wasn't going to give up that easily. I wished that both of us weren't so obstinate because my pants were beginning to rip. But I held on firmly to my end. She would have to give me a better reason if she wanted me to go along with her.

"Idiot!" Emerald finally yelled as she let go of her end of the jeans. I gave a yelp and landed sorely on my butt.

"You're too nice for your own good," she growled down at me, who was still sitting dumbly on his butt on the dirty wooden floor. "I know you mean well, Percy, but I've thought all night about this. I need to do this on my own. You've been so nice to me; now let me take it from here."

"What about Robin?" I argued. I got to my feet and awkwardly brushed the dust off my butt. "I've been working hard to keep him alive so far. They would kill him in a heart beat if I told them I was lying and he was really yours."

"Like I've said, I've been up all night thinking," she said while picking up the duffle bag she had dropped at my door before coming in. "You've helped me out a lot this past week, Percy," she said seriously, "I need to ask you one last favor before one of us leaves. I want to return Robin to his real mother."

She set down the bag on my bed and unzipped it slowly. Robin's small bird head popped out with excitement in his large, falcon eyes. I bit my lower lip and watched as Emerald delicately petted the baby's head with a sad smile on her face. I gave a small whistle as the thought of what she had just done really sunk in. She had just stolen the baby monster out of the cage it was put in yesterday afternoon in the Big House. The girl was either brave or extremely crazy.

"Man, you have a way of shocking me, don't you?" I asked her as I bent down to Robin's head height. He gave a meow and licked my nose. She didn't answer and only watched at I stared long and hard at the baby sphinx. Robin purred and rubbed against my stoic face till finally I smiled back at it and said with a sigh, "You're awfully cute."

Emerald waited quietly as I mulled it all over in my head till every possibility was thought out. This was hard to work through. What she was asking me to do was go with her and deliver the sphinx to its real mother. If I agreed to help her do this, we could easily both end up eaten, but Emerald was no match to this mother sphinx if she went alone.

The decision was just too hard to make. I didn't want to gamble with our lives like this. Well, I could do it to my own, but I couldn't let Emerald get herself killed. The pressure made me sit down on my bed and hold my head in my hands. Two kids were not going to stand a chance against that sphinx.

I guess I was thinking too hard, because my senses didn't pick up the presence of Annabeth and Thalia as they came to my door to say goodbye. Thalia was in the lead, like always, and tapped on the side of the cabin before coming in without permission. It takes awhile to get used to Thalia's I-don't-take-crap-from-anyone attitude. After that, she's really a cool person.

"Whoa! What is going on?" Thalia said as she came in to see both Emerald and I there with a baby sphinx in my lap. I looked up at the knock and didn't have any time to hide Robin and pretend everything was normal.

"You stole the baby sphinx back?" Annabeth questioned us, her voice not even trying to hide her surprise. "Are you guys' crazy?"

"I stole it back because it was originally mine," Emerald confessed boldly. She grabbed Robin out of my lap and held him close. "And if you won't help me now, Percy, I'm going to return him by myself."

"If you go do that, you are sure to get yourself killed, princess," Thalia said to the other girl. "Which, I wouldn't really mind." I winced at this. I could do nothing as the cat fight began. "I knew you were the one who was making Percy act all weird recently. Now look what you've done! You've made him get himself banned. You must be pretty happy with yourself."

"Guys," I tried to intervene before they started to fight each other with fists. That wouldn't be pretty. I tried catching Annabeth's eyes, but she was too focused on the other two girls going at it.

"He chose to get himself banned," Emerald spat back. "I sure didn't want him to! I actually came here to try and talk him out of it. But he's an idiot and won't do what I tell him to!" She stomped her foot down on the ground in her anger.

"Don't call him an idiot!" Thalia screamed in my defense. _Thank you, Thalia._ "Only I can call him an idiot!" _I take that back._

"Guys," I tried again.

"Shut up!" both Thalia and Emerald hissed at me. They then went back to yelling at each other. Finally I just couldn't take it anymore. I got up and stormed over to Emerald, grabbed Robin out of her arms, and then held him over my head. Three pairs of eyes turned my way and stared at me, ready to shout their loud protests. I just hoped Robin wouldn't pee on my head.

"He is the reason why we're freaking out!" I yelled at them. "If you have a problem, shout it at him instead of each other." They all glanced up at the baby sphinx, saw how cutely vulnerable he looked, and decided not to say anything. "Good," I said with a weak smile. "Now, let me explain what is going on so we can figure out what to do peacefully."

It took a half an hour for me to explain to Annabeth and Thalia what had happened between Emerald and I. Emerald butted in to add some stuff, but it was pretty much my monologue. The girls took it very well. Now that they had our story, they were all geared up to helping us with our recent problem. It went so well, that even Thalia and Emerald made up with each other. I was so glad their evil glares and my lying spree was over.

The hard part was figuring out a strategy on getting Robin to his original mommy. We couldn't just walk the baby sphinx across the camp all together, pass the borders, and then hand the kid over. We had to be careful this time. Before, we had stupidly frolicked off past the borders, and I had almost gotten myself eaten. Everything had been fine till the sphinx had gotten near. She had the power to cut off all my demigod senses, so I could only function on plain intelligence around her.

It didn't take us too long to get a plan together. Emerald had gotten an evil gleam in her green eyes as she said she would take care of the distraction we needed for breakfast. All I could do was give her a worrisome glance before stuffing Robin back into the duffle bag that I had put some of my clothes in. We were in for some rough times, and I didn't want the sphinx to get hurt, as the bag was going to get jostled around.

Soon the conch shell that called the campers to breakfast blasted across the morning air. Emerald left the duffle bag with Robin in it with me. If anyone asked why I was carrying it to breakfast, my brilliant answer would be that it was my ready suitcase for when my mom dropped by. I hoped she didn't arrive before we delivered Robin.

I waited till most of the kids were already on their way to breakfast and then ran out of my cabin to file in behind them. There were a few glances down at my bag, but it wasn't suspicious enough for anyone to ask me about it. I sat down at my table with my food and drink.

I caught snatches of conversation about me having the baby sphinx, and once again I felt their stares linger on me. I was on top of everybody's gossip list for the past week. If Emerald provided that distraction, I would be on that list for the next five years. I was over thrilled.

My head popped up at the sense of in coming danger, but I was too late to react. Just as I was turning my head, a big chunk of grits plowed into the side of the head. The edible paste splattered into my ear and hair, causing me to make a disgusted face. Oh this would be fun to wash out.

I saw Emerald out of the corner of my eye stand up on her table. She let all the campers look her way before smiling evilly with her emerald eyes shinning with exhilarating delight. The whole place was silent, just daring her to say the famous words.

No hesitation.

"FOOD FIGHT!" she screamed at all of them.

I barely had time to duck as someone's oatmeal flew over my head. The kids all stood up; screaming and giggling as they flung their breakfast at friends or anybody they saw. I wished I could join them, but I had a mission to do. The whole time I crawled out of there, I was laughing at the sight of everyone covered in food. I would have to start another food fight next year…if I came back.

The three girls met up with me at the Big House. I was still cleaning grits out of my ear, but besides that, we were pretty clean from anyone else's breakfast. We all took one look at each other and busted out laughing.

"That was one of the best distractions I've ever seen!" Thalia told Emerald.

After our share of laughs, we put on serious faces. I gave the bag with Robin in it to Emerald then we all climbed half-blood hill. Pausing on the crest, we stared out at the full grown sphinx at the bottom. Her hawk eyes narrowed dangerously on us. It was then that my fear of getting eaten finally kicked in. My heart started to race as I reached for Riptide in my pocket.

The sphinx let us get a few yards away from her before she got up and growled darkly. Emerald set the duffle bag on the grass before us. She was reaching down to unzip it when the mother struck. She charged for Emerald, but we were quick with our plan. Annabeth had given her invisible cap to the girl. Emerald saw the sphinx come and shoved it on top her head. Then she was gone.

The sphinx skidded a stop with an angry growl. "What trickery is this?" she hissed at us. She decided to ignore the invisible Emerald, wherever she was, and lunged for us. We scattered in different directions. She remembered me from our last encounter and must have wanted to get her revenge, because she followed me instead of the others.

I whipped out Riptide, knowing her next move. I parried a powerful swing of a clawed paw before jumping high into the air and flipping over the sphinx. I landed in a crouch and ran for my life as the sphinx came for me. Suddenly Emerald was at my side. She gave me the cap and ran away. I smiled while putting the thing on.

The sphinx was now outraged. She stopped once I had disappeared and whipped her head around in search of me. I now knew why other monsters considered the sphinx as a less powerful monster. This sphinx wasn't so great once she was getting outsmarted during the battle. They only seemed wise and great because usually they were quick with their attacks. Anything that took time wasn't good for them.

After five more minutes of us exchanging the cap, the sphinx admitted her defeat by calmly sitting down near the duffle bag. Her tail twitched in her annoyance, as she said, "I might not be as tricky as you children, but I know when I have been beaten. Why have you come?"

Emerald came forward with the rest of us close behind her. We all watched her as she unzipped the bag and carefully took Robin out. I could see that Emerald was trying her hardest not to cry as she set the little sphinx down on the grass in front of its mother. The little thing saw his real mother and ran half way there until he realized he was leaving his other mother.

"My…my baby!" the older sphinx said in astonishment. Robin looked longingly back and forth between his real mom and his human one. Confusion overwhelmed the little guy.

"Go on," Emerald urged him with her voice cracking slightly. This was really hard for her. Robin ran back to Emerald, rubbed against her hand a few times, and then bounded joyfully back to his real mom with a squeaky meow.

"I will never leave you again, my baby," the sphinx told her son as she licked his downy feathered face. I grinned at the mother and long lost son finally reuniting again. Who knew monsters could be so loving and caring?

My feelings must have jinxed the situation, because right after the mother was done rejoicing her baby's return; she glared up at us with an ominous growl. We all took a step back. I worked out how long it would take us to get across the border again, and my calculations told me the sphinx would eat us before we got there. Great. We were stuck.

"You stole him from me!" the sphinx snarled at Emerald as she lunged for her. The girl screamed bloody murder, but somehow reacted at the same time. I watched in astonishment as Emerald reached behind her and pulled out her pistol. She aimed it into the air and squeezed the trigger.

The shot was deafening as it echoed throughout the camp. The sphinx jumped back at the disturbing noise and stood in front of Robin to protect him from the girl. I could do nothing as Emerald yelled at the sphinx, "Stay back! These bullets are hand crafted to pierce magical being's flesh. If you come near, I'll shot!"

"She's crazy!" Thalia whispered. "There is no such thing as magical bullets!"

"She told me that gun wasn't loaded!" I expressed my surprise and anger in the same whisper so the sphinx and Emerald couldn't hear me. They were doing their own loony things. Jeez, and I thought I was extreme!

"She's bluffing," Annabeth explained to shut us up. "She's hoping the sphinx won't chance it."

Emerald now aimed her pistol at the sphinx and her baby with hard, narrowed eyes. "I took care of that baby sphinx for a year," she yelled at the sphinx. "But I did not steal him from you. You made a deal with my friends. They return the stolen object, you leave in peace. Now leave, before I'm forced to hurt you."

"Whoa, she's hard core," Thalia whispered.

"Shh!" Annabeth and I quieted her. Inside I was agreeing, though. I didn't think the Aphrodite girl had it in her to do what she had just done. Of course I thought Emerald as a strong and confident character, but I had seen her weak side. She must have been scared to death, but she was staring at this fear face to face. I was really proud of her.

Without another word, the sphinx gathered up her baby in her beak and took off with a powerful flap of her wings. The air rushed past us as the sphinx hovered gracefully in the air above us before beating her wings some more and flying out of sight. And just like that, it was done.

Cheering suddenly exploded from the hill behind us. The sound made me jump. We spun around to see practically the whole camp there watching us. They must have heard the sound of the gun being shot and had come running. Chiron was with the kids. His hard expression betrayed his eyes, though. I could see he was internally happy and grateful we had solved the sphinx problem. I couldn't help but grin up at him.

The rest of the day was one big mess. Emerald and I had broken too many rules to count. Once my mother showed up, Chiron and Mr. D had to call up Emerald's father so we could all have a little chat. It was then that we had to explain, in detail, our whole story from beginning to end.

I could tell my mother was bothered by me running around almost getting eaten by monsters and being shot by Emerald's brother. Usually we kept my summer demigod life on a need to know basis. We didn't talk about it at all. I would send letters to her each week about camp, but I left details out on stuff if it had been life threatening.

But it had worked out in the end. Chiron had worked his finest with getting us to stay and not getting banned. It ended up that for the rest of the year we were sentenced to cleaning duty. That would suck, but it was ten times better than leaving the camp early.

Emerald had it rougher than I did. Because she brought a gun across the borders, she had been stripped of every privilege in the camp. Her father didn't take that news kindly either. He swore he was going to take extra time off when she got back so he could watch over his girl like a hawk. As her father yelled at her over the phone, I spotted a hint of a smile on Emerald's face. She secretly loved the idea of seeing him more often. It wouldn't be a punishment at all for her.

All four of us trouble makers spent the rest of the day cleaning the mess hall from its sticky breakfast disarray. Annabeth and Thalia were over thrilled to know that we hadn't been banned. We worked hard till it was finally time to eat dinner. The place was abuzz with talk of the food fight Emerald had started. I sat, thoroughly satisfied with the fact that barely one stare was directed my way. It was Emerald herself who had the all the glory of the table gossip that night. It was nice to step out of the blaring spotlight.

I went to bed that night worn out and exhausted from the day's events. I knew I should have been feeling happy or at least content for that matter. But I didn't feel any of those emotions. Something was tormenting me at the back of my brain.

It was like I was overlooking something.

A/N: Next chapter is the last chapter! Yay! I have one question…when does the next Percy book come out? I'm too lazy to try and look the date up. Please review! Thanks!


	7. Chapter 7 Life Threatening Wake Up Call

A/N: I am SO sorry for the delay. My stupid computer had problems with its keyboard. I could get it fixed till one of my computer savvy friends took the time to look it over. Hopefully all you readers haven't totally forgotten about this fic. Once again, sorry for the delay. Enjoy the finale and please review! Thanks!

Chapter 7: Life Threatening Wake up Call

The dull coldness of metal pressed against my forehead woke me up from a deep sleep. I moaned while opening my eyes to see what was disturbing me from getting my much needed eight hours. What I was met with sent me from a groggy fog state, to full blown heart attack awake.

"Forgot about me, kid?" Emerald's brother, Kevin, asked me with a cruel smile creeping across his features that were lit up only by a small flashlight. What really had freaked me out was that I was looking down the barrel of a pistol. How's that for a wake up call?

I was at a lost of words. My heart was slamming against my chest so hard; it could be part of the drums in a rock band. I bit my lower lip and only stared back up at the guy, trying not to yell in frustration. He was the thing I had feared I had overlooked before going to bed last night. I really needed to think these things through more often, before it turns around and bites me in the butt like what was happening now.

"What do you want?" I asked him quietly to hide my rising fear.

"You know what I want," he barked down at me. He pressed the barrel against my forehead again, sickly savoring the sight of me flinching. "I want that baby sphinx. I didn't spend a month looking for this dumb camp little Em here goes to for nothing. That magical fog stuff really hides this place."

I squinted into the dim light and saw Emerald standing next to her brother, bound by her wrists with some thick ropes. She looked scared, but functional. With a quick glance out the door, I noted it was early morning and just beginning to lighten up out there. The camp wouldn't awake for another hour or two. It was just fruit loop and us demigods till then.

"One shot will awaken the whole camp," I muttered up at Kevin, trying to sound bored with him.

"It only takes one shot to kill you," he spat back. Emerald gasped at this. Her brother glared at her and tightened his grip on her shoulder. "Shut up," he hissed at her. Then he turned his attention back on me and demanded, "Where is the baby sphinx? She says it's gone back to its mother, but I don't believe her. So you're going to tell me where it is."

I stared up at him, thinking deeply on my next move. I couldn't tell him the baby sphinx was gone like Emerald did. I would have to take him somewhere, but the problem was where. Taking him down to the ocean would be too suspicious. He already knew I was the sea king's kid and would have some control over the water. I would have to take him somewhere else.

"Okay, I'll take you to it," I said with a nod.

"Percy, what are you doing?" Emerald asked me, panic in her voice.

"Alright!" Kevin said with a smile. "I knew I would get more progress with you." He moved out of the way as I slipped out of bed and quickly pulled on some pants, sneakers, and my bright orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.

We left the cabin with me in the lead. Kevin kept his pistol trained at the back of my head as he dragged Emerald along next to him by her arm. The morning air was laden with a thick mist. Usually I loved these kinds of mornings. The constant feel of water around my body had always felt invigorating to all my senses. But I was having a hard time enjoying the feel of the swirling thin clouds as Kevin pushed me forward with his gun.

"We keep him in the forest so the other kids won't find him," I told Kevin behind my shoulder. I caught Emerald's confused expression, but had to ignore it. She was smart enough to catch onto my plan sooner or later.

"I don't want to know why you put it in the forest," Kevin said. "I just want the thing."

We entered the dense forest and were quickly put back into darkness. The rising sun couldn't penetrate the gathering of trunks, branches, and leaves. It was deathly quiet as we slowly made our ways through the woods. Every footstep could be heard. It creeped me out even more than the night I followed Emerald into the forest.

I was grateful when I heard the faint trickle of the creek coming up. I pushed through a few more branches and saw the small stream. I acted as casually as I could under the circumstances I was in as I walked through the creek. When I heard Kevin splash into the stream's waters, I commanded it to freeze.

"What is going on? I'm stuck!" I turned around with a smile to see Kevin caught in my trap with one foot enclosed in ice. No matter how much he kicked and wiggled, that foot wasn't coming out.

"The sphinx is gone, dude," I told him smugly. "You should have listened to your sister."

Kevin looked at me in surprise then back at Emerald on the other side of the steam. He frowned deeply before aiming his pistol downward and shooting the ice around his leg, careful not to shoot his foot. I didn't think he would do _that_!

As three shots exploded noisily into the air, making Emerald jump and animals scatter from the loud disturbance, I launched myself at the man. I forced him to the ground on his back before realizing my momentum had been too much. He easily flung me over his head and soaring into a tree.

I screamed while flying through the air. The harsh impact wasn't the nicest to my head, but at least I didn't have any broken bones. Groaning, I got to my feet and raced toward the dropped gun the man was already heading to. I got there first and kicked it into the stream.

"I could really use some help," I told Emerald. She gave me an irritated look and held up her wrists that were bound. "You could have asked," I said with a grin, throwing her Riptide in pen form. She caught it with a nod and popped the cap. Right away she began to work on her binds.

"I don't believe you gave the sphinx away!" Kevin yelled as he flung himself at me. His hand was curled so tightly into a fist that his knuckles were white. The swing caught me in the shoulder. I went with the flow of the punch, rolled out of the way on that shoulder, and popped back to my feet in seconds.

I let out a battle yell as I whipped my leg around and roundhouse kicked the guy in the ribs. Now, I was told never to harm a human because it was a serious disadvantage on the human's part. Well trained demigods could kill a human in one blow if they wanted to. I was trained to help humans, not harm them.

But I saw this situation as an exception to the many rules I was to go by. This guy just screamed evil revenge type. Emerald and I could end up dead if I didn't do something to stop this guy. Of course I wouldn't kill him, but breaking a few bones wouldn't hurt him…much.

So when the guy coughed up a wad of blood, I put my demigod power strikes on pause. I thought for sure a broken rib would stop the guy, but he lunged for me through the pain of his internal wound.

He ran into me as if he was bull dozer, and we went rolling head over heels till my back stopped us by smacking right into a tree trunk. I hissed as a slow trickle of pain flowed down my spine. At least I knew at that moment that I wasn't paralyzed.

Loose leaves and twigs fell lightly around us as Kevin pushed me by my shoulders up against the tree. The coarse bark of the tree scratched my back as I was pushed upward. Jeez, this guy was stronger than I had thought! Thinking fast, I surged forward and shoved my heel into Kevin's exposed gut, forcing the air out of him in one exploding _whoosh_.

"Come on!" Emerald called to me. I looked up to see Emerald motioning for us to leave. I looked back and forth between Kevin and her, trying to make up my mind as to stay or flee. I didn't like just flat out skipping out of a fight, but it would be better if we ran toward the ocean. Things would be fine once I was in my own element.

"Head toward the beach!" I told her while dodging a lame attempt Kevin made to grab me. She nodded and ran into the woods before I rushed in after her. I had to keep a pretty quick pace to keep up with the fast girl. She leaped over logs and in and out of trees like she owned the place. Sometimes she looked over her shoulder to make sure I was staying with her.

A loud gun shot penetrated the silence again. To my dismay, the bullet had met its mark. An explosion of intense razor sharp and searing, hot pain consumed my calf right after I heard the shot. I let out a loud yell of pain and fell flat on my face in the moist grass and leaves. A dense wave of mist engulfed my body, and I quickly used it to help the agony happening in my leg.

Quick footsteps came close to me. I bit my lip and stayed perfectly still, hoping the mist would give me enough cover from Kevin, who was in search of me. The pain escalated in my leg. To keep myself quiet, I curled a fist around a clump of dirt and sunk my teeth into my tongue.

The light placement of a hand on my shoulder made me jump. I looked over my shoulder and gave a relieved sigh when seeing it was only Emerald. She had doubled back to help me. How she had found me and her brother hadn't, I would never know.

"Get on my back," she commanded in a soft whisper.

"Like a piggy back?" I asked her as she helped me into a weak standing position. I didn't dare put any pressure on the leg that had been shot. I guess she took the question as a joke rather than part of my confusion and shot me a harsh look.

"Of course, Percy!" she said. "I can carry you all the way to the ocean easily." There was no time for arguing. I managed to get on her back with a silent groan. If anyone found this out…I didn't even want to think about it.

With surprising strength and agility, Emerald rushed forward with me on her back through the thick forest. The constant up and down motion was killing my leg, but I pushed through the pain and focused only on what laid ahead.

"Finally!" I breathed as we shot out of the forest and into clear morning air. The sun was painting a soft picture of bright colors on the horizon. We rushed down a grassy knoll to get to the sandy beach. Emerald slipped a few times in the shifty sand, but she made it to the surf and eased me off her back.

It was then that I had the time to examine my bullet wound. If there hadn't been a mist back in the forest, I would have screamed my head off. The bullet had gone straight through the side of my left calf. Blood gushed out of my wound. It was a sickening sight to see.

Quickly, I sat down and let the salty waves heal my leg. Gradually, the pain started to fade and the bloody hole worked its way to being filled. I closed my eyes to focus on healing myself faster. The whole healing process was going extremely slow. We didn't have ten minutes to sit around to wait for me to walk again.

"Percy!" Emerald's frightened voice cut through the soothing rhythm of the waves. I snapped my eyes open and looked to where she was pointing with dread. Just as I thought, Kevin was coming out of the woods and down the knoll. A dark and threatening expression consumed his features as he came toward us.

"What did you do with my sphinx, Emerald?" he growled at his sister. His foreboding tone of voice sent a cold shiver down my spine. I glanced up at Emerald and saw that she was crying, but still holding firm.

"I gave him back to his mother, Kevin," she told him firmly.

"Why?!" he bellowed at her. She cringed, but stood her ground with bold defiance. He shoved his face into hers and yelled insanely at her, "That thing was my only revenge on that sphinx, Emerald!" As he said this he slapped her across the cheek. "That dumb monster killed Jessica! Why would you give it back?" He slapped her again.

Hot red hand marks plastered Emerald's pale face from where he had slapped her. I didn't care if my leg was still healing; no one treated a girl like that! I moved to get to my feet, but was forced to stay where I was when Kevin aimed his pistol at me again. River water was still dripping off its slick metal barrel.

"Answer me!" Kevin screamed at Emerald after a short pause. He raised a hand to slap her again, but she grabbed his wrist before he could make contact with her face. Emerald narrowed her eyes into thin slits as she squeezed the life out of her brother's hand. "Let go!" he said in a panic. She released her grip and watched as he recoiled with a deep frown.

"I returned the sphinx to his mom because I believed it was the right thing to do," she told him emotionlessly. "A mother's love can be stronger than anything. Daring to break it will only result in death."

"What are you talking about?" Kevin yelled in confusion. "It was a monster! It killed Jessica! Doesn't that matter to you?"

"Kevin, it does matter to me," she said with her tone becoming soft and weak. Sobs racked her body as she said, "She was my friend too. And I miss her, but revenge is only fueled by hatred and despair. Please stop this before someone gets hurt! Staying with your mom is only hurting you. Take your medication and come back home to dad and I. We miss you so much!"

Kevin shook his head as he thought it over. Rage overtook his features as he said, "You don't know the pain I'm going through! Maybe I should take the thing you love out of your life so you can feel what I feel!"

"Kevin, no!" Emerald screamed in panic as her brother cocked his gun aimed at my head. She tried to stop him, but was too late. He pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

For a second there was confusion on both Emerald and Kevin's faces. A hollow clicking sound was the only noise that came from his gun as he kept pulling the trigger. I got to my feet with a satisfied smile. I had made the water in the gun somehow ruin the insides of his gun while he was arguing intently with his sister. At that second, it was good to be sea god's son.

I raised a hand in the air and commanded the waters to hold back to build a giant wave. Before Kevin knew what I was doing, (he was still reeling from my trick with his weapon) I let my wave go with a grin. The wave roared over Emerald's and mine heads, hitting Kevin full force.

The power of the wave sent the guy to his butt in one sputtering mess. He choked on salt water as I lead Emerald away. "You won't get anywhere with him, Em," I told her solemnly. She nodded with sadness on her face. She had tried to reach out to her brother, but he had refused her help.

Chiron and the rest of the camp had showed up just in time to see me plow the guy into the sand with my awesome water moving abilities. Of course they hadn't gotten there till the very end…like always. They rushed forward to see if we were okay and to make sure Kevin wouldn't go anywhere. Oh, explaining this would be a ton of fun!

After a week filled with days of dish and bathroom duty, I finally got a break from the strenuous work. I had three hours of free time all to myself. My friends were busy doing some other activities, so I was left to do whatever I wanted. I decided to spend it on the lake.

The day was warm but with a wispy light breeze. Marshmallowy clouds lazily hung in the sky. I laid down face up in a row boat moored to the wooden dock. I took off my shoes and let my feet hang out over the edge and into the cool, murky waters. It was a perfect day.

Soon I got bored of making figures out of the clouds above me. They perpetually morphed into different shapes. I got tired of using my imagination to make them out into real objects. Instead, I closed my eyes and let myself just relax. I hadn't had one of these moments in months.

Something suddenly obstructed the sun from shining down on my face. For a second I thought it was a big cloud, but it didn't move. I frowned and opened my eyes, expecting to see a young camper demanding for me to get out of the boat I wasn't exactly using. Instead I was met with a great surprise.

"Miss me, kid?" Hermes asked with a sly smile.

A broad grin broke across my face as I sat up. "Hermes! What are you doing here?" I asked before I knew what I was saying. He was in his post man outfit. It was obvious he was here to give me a message.

_Why else would he be here?_ George asked. I couldn't see the tiny snake, but his voice was clear in my head. _To give you a birthday present from your mom?_

_Why are you _always_ sarcastic?_ Martha's voice asked George. _Seriously, it gets annoying!_

I smiled at this before asking Hermes, "Did I get something from Poseidon?" I couldn't keep the excitement out of my voice. I hadn't heard anything from my father in a whole year!

"Not this time," Hermes answered. He saw my disappointment and added cheerfully, "But this is just as great." He rummaged around in a bag around his shoulder till he pulled out a large pink envelope. I caught a whiff of what I thought was roses. I leaned forward with curiousness as he handed me the letter addressed to me.

_Lucky dog._ George muttered. _He's only 14 and he's gotten a letter from Aphrodite herself._

"Aphrodite!" I said in surprise. "Why would she send anything to me?"

_You tell me!_ Martha said.

"Well," Hermes said in a rush, "Business these days is booming. I got to run. Persephone is waiting for a message from her husband. Hades is always sending her stuff in the summer! Why can't they just figure out how to use a cell phone? I hope the message is a good one, Percy." I nodded before looking away as he turned into his true god form. And like that, he was gone.

I carefully opened the rosy pink envelope and took out a light pink letter. It was written in beautiful white cursive letters, which did some damage on my dyslexia. Somehow I got through my impairment and managed to read the letter. It was short but sweet.

Thank you for helping my Emerald, Percy.

I wish for you to come with us on our next shopping spree this fall.

Love,

Aphrodite

I read and reread the letter a few times to get it right. Finally I sat back and laughed at it all. Aphrodite had just personally asked me to come shopping with her and Emerald. The thought of it blew my mind away. A demigod life sure was an amusing one.

I sat back down in the boat and closed my eyes again, savoring my peaceful moment. Man, the past two weeks had been hectic ones! Actually, my life for the past three years was one giant whirlwind of chaos. But for once everything seemed like it was going in the right direction. I had made a new friend, earned a place on Aphrodite's nice list, and I was still alive after two sphinx attacks along with Emerald's insane brother kidnapping me and trying to shoot me. Being alive was a great bonus!

As I sat there, soaking in the wonderful sunshine, I realized how much I truly loved being a demigod. Sure, I rarely saw my father and monsters were infatuated with attacking me at the random, but where would I be without some action in my life? I'd be stuck at home this summer, watching TV like a true couch potato, and being bored out of my mind!

_This life,_ I thought to myself with a faint smile, _is not as bad as I thought it would be._ I paused in my thinking before laughing at myself. I must have looked like some insane guy, sitting in a boat laughing at nothing. I sighed and thought, _The sun is frying my brain._

The End

**Beautiful Secret**

By: Pixiegirl13

A/N: Well, guys, that's it for this fic. I'm thinking about writing another fic for this series, but I'm not sure. Ideas aren't coming to me yet. But I'm glad you readers liked the fic even though it was my first time writing one in this category. Thanks for reading and reviewing! I'm finished here!


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